Ryan Hart loves to spend time with her friends, loves to invent recipies, and has a lot on her mind—school, self-image, and family. Her dad finally has a new job, but money is tight. That means changes like selling their second car and moving into a new (old) house. But Ryan is a girl who knows how to make sunshine out of setbacks. Because Ryan is all about trying to see the best. Even when things aren’t all she would wish for—her brother is infuriating, her parents don’t understand, when her recipies don’t turn out right, and when the unexpected occurs—she can find a way forward, with wit and plenty of sunshine.
My Review
Every book I’ve ever read by Renée Watson has made me fall in love with the story and the characters, and WAYS TO MAKE SUNSHINE was no different! I had so much fun reading about Ryan and her family.
The relationships between characters felt real and vivid. Ryan has to navigate changes in her friendships following her family’s move to a new house. Her relationship with her brother was great, too. I loved her whole family.
I think the best part of the story, for me, was the journey Ryan makes in coming to understand herself. At the beginning, she tries to embrace being a leader by doing her own thing and standing apart. But through facing challenges and obstacles, she begins to take charge in a different way– to bring others with her, whether it’s into an impromptu parade or in encouraging another performer to go on stage with her.
All in all, WAYS TO MAKE SUNSHINE is another triumph. I hope kids everywhere get to meet and fall in love with Ryan and her family too!
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12
Representation Ryan and her family are black.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content References to attending church on Easter.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of WAYS TO MAKE SUNSHINE in exchange for my honest review.
One thousand years ago, a wish was made to the Harbinger of Change and a sword of rage and lightning was forged. Kamigoroshi. The Godslayer. It had one task: to seal away the powerful demon Hakaimono.
Now he has broken free.
Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: to take her piece of the ancient and powerful scroll to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the Harbinger of Change, the great Kami Dragon who will grant one wish to whomever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. But she has a new enemy now. The demon Hakaimono, who for centuries was trapped in a cursed sword, has escaped and possessed the boy she thought would protect her, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan.
Hakaimono has done the unthinkable and joined forces with the Master of Demons in order to break the curse of the sword and set himself free. To overthrow the empire and cover the land in darkness, they need one thing: the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. As the paths of Yumeko and the possessed Tatsumi cross once again, the entire empire will be thrown into chaos.
My Review
I’m pretty sure that immediately after I finished the last few words of the last chapter of SHADOW OF THE FOX, I rushed to my copy of SOUL OF THE SWORD and started reading. I really needed to know what would happen to Yumeko and Tatsumi and their friends.
Some things took me completely by surprise. There’s one relationship that emerges that I totally did not expect and absolutely adored. Yumeko certainly doesn’t shy away from breaking the rules, which made some of her choices oddly satisfying? It was like she just looked at the situation and instead of doing what she’d been told she SHOULD do, she wasn’t afraid to ask what would help the most or what would be best for the people involved, regardless of what anyone else would think.
Through SOUL OF THE SWORD, Yumeko continues to be a loyal, compassionate girl, but she also begins to understand and explore her own power, which was an awesome thing to be part of as a reader. She begins the series as this quirky girl who finds her own magic fairly useless. Then she joins forces with powerful warriors and feels like the most powerless or useless person in a battle.
Even before she discovers how to use her magic in more powerful ways, she uses her character– her cleverness and compassion– to change the outcome of battles her team encounters. I love that about her. And when she adds magic to her strength of character, look out. She’s truly a force to be reckoned with, and I loved that, too!
I love this series, and definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a story to get lost in. Here are the reviews for the other books in the series:
Representation Characters speak Japanese in this fantasy series inspired by Japanese folklore. Two characters are gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Some strong profanity and a few crude references used infrequently, mainly by one character.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between two boys.
Spiritual Content The story is filled with spiritual creatures and traditions. Some characters worship divine beings called Kami. Other magical creatures can shapeshift or possess other magic. One character is a ghost who seeks to help Yumeko’s party. Yumeko has been raised by monks in a temple.
Demons respond to the evil blood magic and cause havoc in the human world. Tatsumi has a sword which contains the soul of a powerful demon. He hears the demon’s thoughts and knows that if he’s not vigilant, the demon can take possession of him.
Violent Content Some gory battle violence and references to torture and abuse/neglect of a child.
Drug Content Some characters drink sake. Yumeko gets drunk and regrets it the next day.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.
Central International School’s annual lock-in is legendary — and for six students, this year’s lock-in is the answer to their dreams. The chance to finally win the contest. Kiss the guy. Make a friend. Become the star of a story that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.
But then a group of students, led by Marisa Cuevas, stage an eco-protest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met. While some students rally to the cause, others are devastated as they watch their plans fall apart. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide just how far she’ll go to attain them.
My Review
It’s kind of a crazy time to read a book about being locked in, right? I didn’t think about that right away, but being under stay-at-home orders as I read WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS was definitely interesting– not the same by any means, but interesting.
The style the book is written in is really different from most of the books I read. It’s got an omniscient view that kind of pans through the crowd a lot of the time and then will zoom into one character for a moment and give details about what they’re thinking or experiencing or show a snippet from their past.
Normally this isn’t a writing style that I prefer, but I think it really worked for this story because it creates this big crowd feel but also personalizes so many of the characters and shows so many different points of view and treats them all as equals.
I found it really easy to like lots of the characters, too. Amira and Marisa were my favorites, but I loved Celeste and Kenji and Peejay, too. It took me a little while to get the feel for the community in which the story takes place– it’s an international school, but I kept basically picturing a very diverse American school, which isn’t the same thing at all! But once I recognized that distinction and changed how I was picturing things, I felt like I got it more. Hopefully that makes sense?
On the whole, I really enjoyed reading WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS. It’s the first book by Adi Alsaid that I’ve read, but I’ve wanted to read his books for a while now. I really want to check out the others.
You’ll find content notes below, and also a Q&A with author Adi Alsaid. Be sure to check it out!
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS has a very diverse cast of characters, including LGBTQ+, Latinx, black, and Muslim characters.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used very infrequently. (Only a few instances in the whole book.)
Romance/Sexual Content Lots of references to attraction or infatuation. One brief mention of a couple who take their clothes off in front of each other. References to kissing and making out.
Spiritual Content Some references to Muslim faith and traditions.
Violent Content Students get angry at one point and start throwing things at Marisa, injuring her.
Drug Content Instances of teens drinking alcohol.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS in exchange for my honest review.
Q&A with Author Adi Alsaid
Q: What inspired you to
write this book?
A: I’ve been wanting to write a book that felt like my favorite book, Bel Canto, for a while now. So the very initial inspiration was a group of characters all stuck in the same place for an extended period of time. Then, to make it feel more YA, I thought of The Breakfast Club, but instead of cliques, just bring people with different passions together. Then, because of my increasing awareness over the last few years about environmental issues, combined with the fact that I was traveling and seeing those issues play out around the world, I brought in the fight for climate change.
Q: What’s your favorite
thing about Marisa Cuevas?
A: Her willingness to fight for what she believes in.
Q: I love the
juxtaposition of a lock-in against a political protest. What was the most
challenging part of threading those two very different pieces together?
A: Honestly, it was the logistics of actually keeping the
students locked in. The political protest wouldn’t work without it, nor would
the plot. So I had to find a whole lot of justifications that felt reasonable
within the story. Other than that, one of my goals was to show, embodied in
different characters, all the ways people react to political protests, and to
make them feel like actual people, not just symbols.
Q: What do you most
hope that readers take away from the story?
A: Getting others to care about what you care about is hard, but you’re allowed to try, and it’s possible to succeed.
Q: Is there a character
that you found challenging to write? Why?
A: All my characters come easily to me. The challenge is working
to get them right in revisions. Jordi Marcos, a sort of villain in the story,
was one that was hard to get right, in order to make his actions feel
justified. I also have a queer Muslim character in Amira, and I had to work—and
had the fortune of being guided by a great sensitivity reader—to not make her
representation be harmful.
Q: How does a typical
writing day look like for you?
A: Assuming this means not in the time of COVID-19. I wake up
and go straight to a coffee shop, where I work/avoid looking at my phone for
about 3 hours or so. Then I usually have lunch, take a break by watching a
movie, running errands, or something in that vein. Then another work session in
the afternoon or late evening at another coffee shop or perhaps a bar, followed
by cooking dinner. During deadline times there’s also usually a late night
session at home.
Q: What are your
current reading?
A: I’m about to finish The
Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, listening to The Art of Logic in an Illogical World by
Eugenia Chang, and my next read will probably be Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova.
Q: Is there something
secret you can share with us about anything in the book or your experience
writing it?
A: I don’t know about secret, but I’ll say that I had the unique
experience of traveling the world while writing it. So, many of its words were
written in the communal areas of hostels, on airplanes, trains, on an island in
Fiji, and in many, many coffee shops.
It’s summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can’t be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy’s only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk…until she’s matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything.
Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others–like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom–and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they’ll stand for…and who they’ll rise against.
A master of award-winning queer historical fiction, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley once again brings to life with heart and vivid detail an emotionally captivating story about the lives of two teen girls living in an age when just being yourself was an incredible act of bravery.
My Review
So by now you probably know I LOVE books about music, and I have a particular soft spot for punk. I also found myself drawn to the historical aspect of MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD, too, as I’m not familiar with very much of what happened in the 1970s.
The story is told entirely in diary entries and letters that Tammy and Sharon write to each other. In the diary entries, they often report things they aren’t ready to tell each other, or things that happen to both of them together. I liked the format and felt like it made things really personal. I felt like I could watch their friendship grow and its affect on their diary entries and feelings of isolation.
Both Tammy and Sharon belong to conservative Christian schools and communities and wrestle with feeling like they don’t belong. Tammy believes if she ever tells the truth about who she is (that she’s gay), she’ll be cast out of her family and community. Sharon worries for the same about her brother, who’s also gay.
This story hit me pretty hard. I grew up in a conservative Christian community (and still live in the town where I grew up), and I’ve wondered before about what it would be like to come out to that group of people. I think there would have been talk of conversion therapy, not by my parents, but by some of their friends and church members. My parents wouldn’t have stopped speaking to me or kicked me out. That’s just not how they operate. But it would have cost me most (if not all) of the contact I had with my faith community, and that would have been really painful and difficult.
I grew up with a girl who came out to her parents and lost her relationships with them. They haven’t spoken to her in years. They didn’t even try to contact her after the Pulse shooting to see if she was okay, and I can’t even imagine how hurtful that is.
Anyway, I guess reading this book, not only did I connect with Tammy and Sharon and everything they went through, I guess I pictured the faces of my friends, and it made me think about what it was like– even decades later than this book takes place– to grow up in a conservative church and be gay.
I really enjoyed the book, both for the emotional journeys that it brought me on and for the really fun punk scene (Midge Spelling is my favorite!).
Check out the Q&A with Robin Talley after the content notes!
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation Multiple characters are gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl, references to making out. Reference to oral sex. Kissing between same sex couples.
Spiritual Content Both Tammy and Sharon are part of conservative Christian churches which believe that being gay is a sin. They come across as dogmatic, angry, and manipulative. One church leader gets caught in an affair and embezzling money from a charity.
Violent Content Some references to fights during punk shows.
Drug Content Teens drinking alcohol.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD in exchange for my honest review.
Q&A with Author Robin Talley
Q: What is your favorite thing about Tammy or Sharon?
A: I love the close connection between Sharon and her brother, Peter. That was another element of the story that came to me very early and was crucial in how I envisioned the characters’ lives. They’re siblings and best friends who know exactly how to get on each other’s nerves when they want to, but when it comes down to it, they’ll do absolutely anything for each other.
Q:
Are there any parts of Tammy and Sharon’s lives that reflect your own?
A: Their lives are pretty different from mine — for one thing, I wasn’t born yet when their story takes place, and I’ve always lived on the East Coast. I did grow up in a more right-wing community than I live in now, though, and I was part of a pretty conservative church community there. Though my church wasn’t politically active, thank goodness.
Q:
How did you come up with the letters to Harvey?
A: From the beginning, my very first kernel of the idea that led to this book was the image of Tammy in her church basement, writing a secret letter to Harvey Milk while around her, everyone she knew was celebrating the victory of Christian singer and TV commercial star Anita Bryant’s campaign to overturn a gay rights law in Miami. I imagined Tammy surrounded by people, but still completely isolated, and reaching out to the only person she’d ever heard of who she thought might be able to understand how she felt. At that time, Harvey was getting a lot of media attention nationwide as one of the most outspoken gay rights activists (he also served as a convenient bogeyman for anti-gay right-wing activists).
Q:
What inspired you to write in the Harvey Milk era?
A:
The history of activism for LGBTQ equality has always
been a big interest of mine. Before Music
From Another World I’d written two books that both focused on queer
characters living in the 1950s, when being a member of that community meant,
almost by default, being closeted. I wanted to explore a later era when, for
the first time, some LGBTQ people began to see coming out as a real option —
but an option with consequences that could be catastrophic. The late 1970s was
also when the anti-gay community first started to emerge as a major political
player, so that was interesting to explore as well.
Q:
What was the most difficult part of the story to write, and why did you feel it
was important to include that part?
A: I had a lot of trouble writing some of the things that happen to Tammy near the story’s midpoint (trying to be vague here to avoid spoilers). I hate to ever write about the characters that I care about experiencing anything negative, but the reality of the situation required it. The stakes Tammy faced were simply too high.
Q:
How do you balance the intensity of the time period and subject with the love
story?
A: That’s just the thing — we’re all living our lives against the backdrop of history, one way or another. We’re living through an incredibly turbulent time in the world right now, just like Sharon and Tammy were in the late 1970s, but people are still going to school, fighting with their parents, getting their first jobs, etc. And, yes, falling in love. For all of us, just like for these characters, we have to figure out how the minutiae of day to day life (and sometimes the drama of it) fits in with the bigger picture, and not lose sight of the contributions we make to the larger world, too.
Q:
What is one thing you hope readers take away from MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD?
A:
I hope they’ll go on to read more on their own about
the events that followed the end of this story. There were a ton of both highs
and lows in the movement for LGBTQ rights, and although this story focuses
largely on 1978’s Proposition 6 in California, also known as the Briggs
Initiative, that was just one campaign out of a much larger movement, and it
was the larger movement that laid the foundation for events that we’re still
seeing play out today.
Exploring a mysterious cave in the mountains behind their house, John and his sister Sarah are shocked to discover they’ve time traveled to ancient Egypt!
Now they must work together to find a way back home from an ancient civilization of golden desert sand and a towering new pyramid, without parents to save them. The adventures abound—cobras, scorpions, a tomb robber, and more! The two kids have to trust each other, make friends who can help, and survive the challenges thrown at them . . . or be stuck in ancient Egypt forever.
For readers graduating from the Magic Treehouse series and ready for intense action, dive into this middle grade novel rich with meticulous historical detail.
My Review
I feel like books about time travel to ancient civilizations are really nostalgic for me because I used to really love a movie like that when I was little, so I was excited to read THE EYE OF RA for that reason.
It’s a cute story– brother and sister with really different personalities find themselves tossed into life in ancient Egypt and trying to figure out how to get home. I liked that Sarah is the adventurous one and John is the more structured, introverted one. I feel like lots of stories would have had those personalities reversed, so I thought it was kind of fun to see it this way.
Disclaimer: I know very little about ancient Egypt and the construction of the pyramids, so I can’t really speak to the historical accuracy there. I did find it a little odd that the characters from ancient Egypt still spoke in a modern way and the relationship between the husband and wife as well as between the parents and children was very modern. That part of it felt a little more like a Fred Flintstone version of ancient life, if that makes sense?
I thought it was cool that John and Sarah meet someone in ancient Egypt who face one of the same difficulties they face (moving far away) and that it made them consider elements of the move that they hadn’t considered before.
The ending seemed a little abrupt to me. I would have liked the kids to have been more actively involved in solving the mystery. At the start, they’re very much taking ownership of locating the thief and solving the crime, and I liked that– I wanted that energy to continue through the end of the book.
Overall, I thought it was a fun read that would be enjoyable for middle elementary school readers, like maybe third to fifth grade.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 10.
Representation Sarah and John are white and the other kids are Egyptian.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content Reference to a kiss between Sarah and a boy.
Spiritual Content References to Egyptian mythology – the god Ra and others.
Violent Content Some situations of peril.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE EYE OF RA in exchange for my honest review.
She never believed in fairies… until one set its sights on her little brother. Now, she must risk everything to get him back.
On her twelfth birthday, Cricket Kane uncovers a chilling secret–tooth fairies have stopped collecting single teeth and have resorted to kidnapping children instead. When her brother is taken, the fairy leaves a changeling and a toxic black dust in his place. The dust soon infects the rest of her family, but to her surprise, she’s immune!
With the guidance of a mysterious cat, Cricket follows the fairy to a magical land where legendary creatures are real. When Santa himself takes her under his wing, Cricket learns she’s the only one who can harness the power of the dust to rescue her brother and the other missing children. But doing so might cost her life.
Can she summon the courage and strength to save her family and herself?
Find out now in this middle-grade fantasy for fans of Nevermoor and The Land of Stories!
My Review
One of the things I like about THE SLUG QUEEN CHRONICLES is that it features a blended family. Cricket’s dad has remarried and he and Cricket’s stepmom have just had a baby. Cricket talks a little bit about that adjustment, but more from the practical side and not much in terms of deep emotional processing. I liked seeing that representation in literature.
I also really like Cricket’s character. She’s loyal, determined, and smart. I found it easy to root for her on her quest to save her brother.
The story is pretty action-oriented. Things happen quickly, new complications rising in every episode or chapter. The cast of characters is a bit large, but they’re introduced more slowly, which helps make it easier to keep track of them all.
Spiritual Content The story contains magical creatures and fairy bargains– such as trading something you want for something you need. Not all humans can sense magic or see fairies. Cricket is special in these abilities.
Violent Content Some situations of peril. Cricket has to eat or drink gross-looking or -smelling things. Some of the creatures are scary. An old woman gets hit on the head and collapses.
Drug Content None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE SLUG QUEEN CHRONICLES in exchange for my honest review.
