Jade believes the only way she’ll find success is to get out of her neighborhood. That’s why she accepts a scholarship to a privileged, mostly white school. It’s why she puts her studies first—no time for boys, no time for goofing around. As a girl from a poor neighborhood, Jade knows she must appreciate the opportunities that come her way, even those that treat her as less-than. When she joins a mentorship program meant to help “at-risk” (read: black) girls, Jade’s frustration mounts. How is her so-called mentor supposed to teach her anything when she doesn’t have her own life together? How are the group’s pointless activities supposed to change anything for her?
My Review
As Jade wrestles with the injustices in her life, she begins to realize the only way things will change is for her to find her own voice, to speak up, and challenge the people around her. Her courage and vulnerability make her story deeply moving and accessible. When she shares her experiences with racism with a white friend, at one point her friend sort of shrugs and says, “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Jade’s ability to articulate this response—support me, believe me, she tells her friend—opens conversation and dialogue about race relations issues.
Overall, this is a rich story. It’s easy to connect with Jade through her experiences, to love her, and to understand how she feels and why. It’s easy to cheer for her victories, as a young woman and an artist. I loved that she’s a collagist, and I loved the way her art was a key component of the story. I loved the way history (the story relates some information about York, an African American man who traveled with Lewis and Clark) and poetry played a key role in the story as well.
I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy contemporary fiction or novels about art and friendship.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Jade, her family, and her best friend Lee Lee are African American. Her mentor comes from a wealthy African American family. Her friend Sam is a white girl being raised by her grandparents. Jade is studying Spanish hoping for an opportunity to travel in an educational program. Each chapter begins with a Spanish word translated to English.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Jade attends a meeting with her mentorship group that focuses on dating and relationships. She’s not interested in either one, and the conversation stays pretty vague.
Spiritual Content Jade comes home to her mom listening to gospel music and cleaning. Following a terrible event, Jade asks her uncle to say a prayer. He calls prayer a “poor man’s drug,” and tells Jade the person she needs to be talking to isn’t God but politicians who can make changes. Jade prays anyway.
Violent Content Four police officers beat up an unarmed fifteen-year-old black girl when they break up a party. Jade and her friend hear about it on the news, but feel shaken up.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog.
When I was a child, I wrote poems in a journal and often created hand-made birthday or holiday cards for family and friends with my own poem penned on the inside written especially for my loved one. On Valentine’s Day, more than chocolate—I wanted a poem. I enjoyed the exchange of Valentines with my schoolmates, how we showed care for each other and took one day of the year to make sure each person in our class felt special. By high school, Valentine’s Day was no longer about friendship but more about relationships— was dating, who wasn’t. All of a sudden love was only about romance.
I’m all for romance but I also think it’s important to practice loving myself, to remember that I have much to be grateful for. I hope that everyday—not just on Valentine’s Day—I show people how much I care about them and that I focus not only on grand gestures but simple, daily offerings of appreciation.
This Valentines Day I am celebrating the publication of Piecing Me Together. I am thinking about the character Jade and the many people, places, and things she loves. Jade loves her mom even though her mom is struggling. She loves her neighborhood, even though some of its buildings could use some TLC. She cares deeply about her friends and more and more she is connecting to her roots, her history, and falling in love with herself.
Jade is a visual artist and her best friend, Lee Lee, is a poet. I think the two of them would spend Valentine’s Day making cards and choosing poems for their family and friends. They might even host an open mic and ask people to bring a poem that isn’t the typical love poem but poem that celebrate and honor all the there is to love about life. I am sure these are a few that they’d have on the list.
Valentine’s Day Alternative Reading List: not your typical love poems
1. Poetry Should Ride the Bus by Ruth Foreman: A poem about loving the simple things, about finding beauty in ordinary places. In this poem poetry plays “hopscotch in a polka dot dress” and sings“red revolution love songs.” Poetry is for everyday people doing everyday things and just like Jade, it finds the beauty in what others may discard.
2. Congregation by Parneshia Jones. A poem about loving and honoring tradition. This is an homage to family, to cooking together, and breaking bread with one another. It is about what is passed down from one generation to the next. It is having a belly full of food, a heart full of joy. Jade loves her mother’s cooking and the kitchen is a place where they share what is going on in their lives, where they heal and laugh, and bond.
3. Raised by Women by Kelly Norman Ellis. A poem about loving the people who raised us. I recognize each of the women in this poem—the scholar, the debutante, the artist. The dancing, finger-popping, tell-it-like-it-is women who have something to say. Jade knows these women, too. She is being raised by determined women, by flawed women, and by women who have a fierce love for her.
4. For My People by Margaret Walker. A poem about loving where you come from. This is an ode poem, a poem of praise that specifically honors the plight of African Americans in the United States of America. Jade is discovering the legacy she is a part of and finding strength in learning about African American men and women who came before her as activists and artists. In many ways Jade feels invisible and this is a poem that says, I see you… I am bearing witness to your experience.
5. Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. A poem about loving yourself. This poem is a powerful declaration that no matter what tries to pull us down, we can rise. Jade is pulled down by low expectations, stereotypes, and assumptions. She finds strength from within to rise and learns how to advocate for herself and use her voice to speak up for what she wants, and what she deserves.
6. won’t you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton. A poem about loving the journey. This is one of my favorite poems by my absolute favorite poet. I think it connects to Jade’s story because like the speaker in the poem, Jade was “born nonwhite and woman” and has no model of how to go about achieving the goals she has. Like so many girls I know, piece by piece she is making something of her life and everyday something has tried to kill her dream, her passion, her self esteem and has failed. There has been a lot of pain for Jade, yes. But there is much joy and so much about her life to celebrate, to love.
Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel, What Momma Left Me debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction by The Independent Children’s Booksellers Association.
Renée’s one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City’s Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze.
When Renée is not writing and performing, she is teaching. Renée has worked in public schools and community organizations as an artist in residence for several years, teaching poetry, fiction, and theater in Oregon, Louisiana, and New York City. She also facilitates professional development workshops for teachers and artists.
One of Renée’s passions is using the arts to help youth cope with trauma. She has facilitated poetry and theatre workshops with young girls coping with sexual and physical abuse, children who have witnessed violence, children coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and children who relocated to New York City after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Renée graduated from The New School, where she studied Creative Writing and earned a certificate in Drama Therapy.
Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods.
But Jade doesn’t need support. And just because her mentor is black doesn’t mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.
Friendships, race, privilege, identity—this compelling and thoughtful story explores the issues young women face.
Enter to Win a Hard Copy of Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
After Ollie’s mother died, he left home with Dr. Auburn-Stache to travel the United States meeting other kids with bizarre abilities resulting from lab experiments. In letters to Moritz, the German boy with no eyes who has become his best friend, Ollie relates the journey. He meets a boy with bones so brittle they snap like chalk, and a girl who removes her heart when her feelings become too intense. Inspired by Ollie’s cross-country adventure, Moritz makes a journey of his own, joining a prestigious school where he meets a girl with two mouths. Then a terrible discovery leaves eternally optimistic Ollie reeling, and a horrible mistake propels Moritz back into isolation. But the unusual group faces a bigger risk, one that can’t be tackled unless both boys face the very thing they fear most.
Nowhere Near You sat on my bedside table for a crazy amount of time before I finally faced my own fear and picked it up. I loved Because You’ll Never Meet Me, the beginning of Ollie and Moritz’s story, so much that I worried about reading more. Apparently I’m super susceptible to this kind of sequel-pressure, because I worry about this sort of thing a lot.
That said, once I started reading, I felt like I was back in the story world I loved so much in the first book. I love Ollie’s upbeat, indomitable voice—he’s like a Labrador puppy, leaping and bounding all over the place and convinced the world is a fantastic, friendly place. But I also love Moritz’s buttoned-up, melancholy tone. I want a Fieke in my life. She’s the kind of prickly but protective friend that every sensitive person needs, and she definitely added some punch to Moritz’s letters. Klaus was another favorite of mine. His quiet, devoted friendship won me over right away.
But I think one of the unsung heroes of the story has to be Moritz’s dad. I loved Moritz’s description of his dad being a man of few words, so that when he spoke, each word had weight because it was obviously carefully considered. His character bears out that description, too. Even though he’s not in the story much, I liked him and it was obvious that he meant a great deal to Moritz and had a huge impact on his life.
In terms of plot, this was always going to be a story which required a serious willingness to suspend disbelief as so many characters have bizarre traits and abilities. I liked that Leah Thomas used this story to explore Moritz’s lack of sight beyond his supernatural ability to compensate via echolocation. At one point illness robs Moritz of his ability and reminds him how fragile he is and how dependent he is on his hearing for both vision and sound.
If you haven’t read Because You’ll Never Meet Me, you need to start with that one first. You could probably follow a great deal of the story without having read it, but you’ll be on the outside of a lot of inside jokes between Ollie and Moritz, and seriously. It’s really good. So there’s that, too.
Recommended for Ages 15 up.
Cultural Elements
Moritz, who lives in Germany, was born with no eyes. He can “see” using echolocation, but illness interferes with his ability to hear and he can’t discern color, which becomes a problem in school.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Boy/boy kissing. One brief, vague comment about touching and an insinuation that the boys have had sex. Moritz repeatedly tells Ollie that he loves him.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content An accident involving a school bus injures some kids. A girl has the ability to remove her heart from her chest in a non-gory way. Her heart sits in a pocket in her chest and is completely enclosed, so not bloody or anything when she takes it out. At one point she threatens to put it into a blender (to commit suicide).
Drug Content
A boy from school gives Moritz alcohol to drink.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Today I’m sharing a review as part of an Irish Banana Blog Tour. If you’re looking for an adventure book for middle grade boys, you definitely want to check this one out. Keep reading to find my review, some content information, a bit about the author, other stops on the tour, and a chance to win a copy of the book for yourself!
The Blue Moon Narthex (Karmanic Sovereign Legion #1)
N. J. Donner
Steel Page Press
Published February 7, 2017
The balance of good and evil has been left in the hands of a thirteen year old…
Since the beginning of time, Karmanic matter worked silently and unassisted keeping good and evil in balance, until growing greed in the world meant Karma couldn’t keep up. As World War I rages, the secret Karmanic Sovereign Legion works behind the scenes to help Karma.
A suspicious train accident and an odd stone-shaped object that belonged to his father thrust Cole McCarthy and two schoolmates into the middle of this battle to keep dark forces in check.
With only the powerful stone, a letter, and grandfatherly Norm to guide them, the trio must unravel clues and tap into unknown strengths to discover who Cole’s father really was and keep themselves and those they love safe.
Includes chapter 1 of book 2 in the Karmanic Sovereign Legion series!
My Review
This book definitely made me think of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Cole isn’t as snarky and full of attitude as Percy, which was nice. I liked the relationship Cole shared with his father through letters and the stories he learned about from his father’s associates. His friends, Sophia and Britten, rounded out his inner circle nicely. I thought Sophie was pretty much adorable.
The story contains a large cast of characters, and I sometimes found it difficult to keep everyone straight, especially when several characters had similar names. For the most part, though, this didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story. I thought often even minor characters had clear roles and specific goals and character traits. It felt like this story introduced me to a whole scene of characters who will probably reappear later on.
Elements of mystery and suspense kept me moving from chapter to chapter. Cole’s compassion and his determination kept me rooting for him from the first page to the last. Late elementary school readers who like adventure or suspense stories should totally get a copy of this book.
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Cultural Elements
The main character is a young wealthy white American. He joins a league whose lead council is made up of members of various races, but those adult characters play very minor roles in the story.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity. One instance of crude language (a girl refers to a rival as “the north end of a south-facing donkey.”
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content One vague reference to the creator of the universe. The premise of the story is that Karmanic energy (like karma) can be tracked and harnessed by those doing good deeds and stopping those who try to do bad deeds. Artifacts provide some characters a magical ability to travel instantly from one place to another. The villain uses henchmen that seem sort of blurred and ghostly.
Violent Content Creepy sort of ghostly bad guys chase the good guys. Cole participates in a sporting event that’s a bit dangerous. It’s clear the bad guy’s goal is to kill Cole and anyone who tries to stop him. Cole believes his mission is to kill the traitor who killed his father. There are a couple of very brief battle scenes, no gore.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
N.J. Donner is the author of the new Karmanic Sovereign Legion books. N.J. loves to explore. The world fascinates him and he wants to figure out why and how things work, including Karma.
College adventures took N.J. far from his small Nebraska hometown to the southern hemisphere and the inner city. This was the beginning of his wanderlust and today he loves to travel with his wife, Amanda, and their three children.
N.J. became the first person to graduate with a minor in international affairs from Nebraska Wesleyan University and spent the years right out of college building a successful steel company.
When a hidden figure hits Elia with a poisoned arrow, she knows the other members of the tribe she’s living with still haven’t accepted her into their ranks. In fact, one of them may be trying to kill her. The chief’s son tells her not to worry, and offers to introduce her to another outsider living in a neighboring village. Maybe this outsider will understand the significance of the artifact Elia fled Above to protect. If Elia can unlock its secrets, she can finally return home.
Elia goes to meet the woman, who like Elia fell from an island floating in the clouds of Above. While she’s away, Hokk, an outcast and Elia’s best friend, puts finishing touches on a plan to bring her home and himself escape to the world Above. The only way Hokk can silence the guilty memories of the lives he cost is to save Elia. He’ll bring her home no matter the cost.
If the summary of the book makes it sound like there’s a lot going on in this story, it’s because there is! People on floating islands, people on earth, people on the moon (who haven’t been heard from in years). It’s a lot to keep track of. The story focuses on several big settings, too: a tribe Below, a desert island Above, a rich home, and a towering capital city.
I loved the concepts of the story world. It was a lot to take in all at once, though, and I felt like the story didn’t have time to go deep in any one place. The setting descriptions are vivid and definitely show what things look like, but it was hard to figure out how things related to one another. Where was Hokk from, for instance? He calls his homeland Ago, but I couldn’t ever really figure out if that was a geographical location—somewhere else on earth? Or was he banished from another time? I suspect the answers are in the first book in the series, which probably contains a lot more of Hokk’s backstory.
Speaking of Hokk. I had a real love/hate relationship with that guy. Sometimes he did really smart things, sometimes he went all out to protect Elia (though it was hard to define his relationship with her), yet other times he did some pretty cruel things. I don’t know. I found those crueler moments to be a barrier for me to really wanting him to succeed.
I liked Elia– she had a lot of spunk and commitment, and often a lot of concern for others. But even Elia had some really selfish behaviors. And it’s not that she has to be perfect. Flawed characters can be really easy to fall in love with. I think what was missing for me on the part of both Hokk and Elia was remorse for their wrongs.
Overall, I thought the storyworld was really imaginative and different. This book would probably appeal to fantasy readers and those looking for an adventure story with emphasis on exploring and piecing together clues about artifacts. I’d recommend starting with the first book in the series, though.
Recommended for Ages 10 up.
Cultural Elements
Two cultures live separated by world/distance. The people from Above, islands floating in the sky, have tanned skin, blond hair and an extra, transparent eyelid that protects their vision from the sun. Those who live Below, on earth, have very pale skin and aren’t used to bright sunlight. No mention of other ethnic groups or orientations.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing between a girl and boy.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Someone poisons a young woman and her pet with darts. A chief pieces the eyebrow of his best warrior as a sign of honor. A young man throws a woman off the edge of a cliff. A young woman subdues an enemy with the darts. A hunter catches and skins a rabbit for dinner. Those in Above live in fear of violent scavengers who are rumored to snatch people off the edges of islands. Scavengers don’t exist, though.
Drug Content
The darts used by the tribe have two kinds of poison: one deadly, and the other more of a strong sedative.
Elia learns of incense sticks with a calming effect. After the calm wears off, though, the user experiences anxiety and paranoia. She observes this in others and uses them herself.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Rexi, Robin Hood’s daughter, scrambles to make amends for accidentally releasing the wicked witch from her prison and mucking up everyone’s happily ever after. That’s sort of the problem, though: no matter what Rexi does, everything ends up an even bigger mess. But all that has to change now that Rexi is faced with becoming Forgotten, erased from Story forever. Rexi vows to do whatever it takes to break the curse that binds her to chipper princess Dorthea and rewrite her own story, to become a hero.
I think the best part about this book, for me, were the quotes opening each chapter. They were very tongue-in-cheek references to fairytale stories and characters. I also really loved the whole mixed up fairytale situation in Wanted. Instead of a gorgeous mirror mounted on the wall, the magic mirror has become a compact whose rhyme is broken. Rexi’s just-roll-with-it attitude made some of these unexpected shifts pretty funny.
The whole story has a pretty snarky voice, which sometimes grated on my nerves. There were moments I was like, okay, does Rexi actually like anything? But ultimately her deep desire to be wanted, to be valued by others and even loved totally won me over.
Fans looking for something a little older than the Ever After High books, but with much the same twisty-but-silly fairytale quality should definitely give this a read. I think it would appeal to fans of the School for Good and Evilbooks, too.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
The major characters seem to be white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Rexi swears in fairytale words, shouting things like, “Spell no,” or “Glam it.”
Romance/Sexual Content Brief boy/girl kissing.
Spiritual Content Lots of magic. The Storymaker has the ability to write stories, but he’s not a purely benevolent force. The story definitely takes on a “life is what you make it” kind of attitude, but also emphasizes the value of heroism and good deeds. Characters who don’t live a heroic story become forgotten and fade from memory and existence.
Violent Content Some scuffling and battles. Brief gore. One of Rexi’s allies swaps heads with other characters, which is a little it icky. Not a lot of gross description, but a little bit for sure.
Drug Content
Rexi drinks tree sap tonic to keep her memories from becoming confused. She makes a very brief reference to feeling as if she’s had some spiked beverage at one point when she feels woozy.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
