Tag Archives: Gardening

Review: A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

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A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi cover shows a girl looking back over her shoulder toward the camera. In the background is a tall tree whose leaves form a path, winding around the tree and swirling around the girl.

A Bit of Earth
Karuna Riazi
Greenwillow Books
Published March 14, 2023

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About A Bit of Earth

Maria Latif is used to not having a space of her own. But what happens when she feels the sudden urge to put down roots in the most unexpected of places?

Growing up in Pakistan, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives for as long as she can remember–first because of her parents’ constant travel, and then because of their deaths. Maria has always been a difficult child, and it never takes long for her guardians to tire of her. So when old friends of her parents offer to “give her a better life” in the United States, Maria is shipped to a host family across the world.

When Maria arrives on Long Island, things are not quite what she was expecting. Mr. Clayborne has left on an extended business trip, Mrs. Clayborne seems emotionally fraught, and inexplicable things keep happening in the Claybornes’ sprawling house. And then Maria finds a locked gate to an off-limits garden. Since she’s never been good at following rules, Maria decides to investigate and discovers something she never thought she’d find: a place where she feels at home.

With a prickly main character, a sullen boy, two friendly allies, and a locked garden, A BIT OF EARTH is a reimagining of THE SECRET GARDEN.

My Review

I probably say this every time, but I feel like it’s always a little bit of a risk to read a reimagined version of a childhood favorite story. One of the reasons I was excited about this is that it centers on a girl from Pakistan with an inclusive cast.

I loved the way this book highlighted and connected Maria’s rigidity and contrariness with her grief and loneliness. This is present in the original story, too, but I loved the way the author brought those parts of Maria to the page. I felt like I understood Maria’s character and her heart in a way that I’m not sure I ever understood the main character from the original.

Another fantastic but unexpected element of the story for me was in the relationship between Maria and Lyndsay. She’s the second wife of Mr. Clayborne, the wealthy couple who has taken Maria in. Not only does Maria find a way to bring life back into the neglected garden, but she also helps Lyndsay’s courage to blossom again. I loved the way the story captured that transformation and celebrated the relationship between those two girls.

Readers who enjoy reimagined stories will like this one. I think readers looking for realistic fiction about a lonely girl and the way that gardening helps her find herself again will also love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Maria is from Pakistan. Additional characters are Desi, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Maria attends a Milaad, which she tells Lyndsay is a religious celebration.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of A BIT OF EARTH in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

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Ophelia After All
Racquel Marie
Feiwel & Friends
Published February 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Ophelia After All

A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie.

Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to.

So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control. But the course of love–and sexuality–never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.

My Review

I don’t think I’ve ever read a debut so wise as this one. While Ophelia is herself a romantic, her story doesn’t truly center around a romantic relationship. It explores romantic feelings– both hers and some of her friends’. But the story truly shines as one of self-discovery. Ophelia wrestles with her own expectations for herself and the challenges of navigating close relationships as those expectations or feelings change.

Ophelia has a large and loud friend group, but the relationships aren’t all equally shared. Not only did this feel very real to me, because it’s hard to imagine a homogenously friendly group that size, but it deepened each of those characters because every relationship with Ophelia was individual, and impacted the group differently. It created a lot of tension and opportunity for ripple effects in that tension, which really made the big moments in the book even bigger.

I feel like I spent a long time on the edge of my emotional seat holding my breath and rooting for Ophelia to finally spill her guts and talk about the things she was holding back. I love the scene where things do come out and how wild and dramatic it was. I felt like it was the perfect scene for the story as a whole.

I think readers who enjoyed CAN’T TAKE THAT AWAY by Steven Salvatore or HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE by Dahlia Adler will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ophelia is Latine and white. She has a diverse group of friends. Some are black, Latine, and LGBTQIA+

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls. Brief reference to sex. Some conversations about asexuality.

Spiritual Content
Reference to family members who are homophobic for religious reasons.

Violent Content
Some homophobic comments.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Moongarden: Plotting the Stars by Michelle A. Barry

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Sci-Fi, , , , , , , ,

Moongarden: Plotting the Stars
Michelle A. Barry
Pixel + Ink Books
Published November 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Moongarden

The Secret Garden meets The City of Ember as an unlikely heroine confronts loneliness and crippling parental expectations, finding her seed of courage to weed out an intergalactic government conspiracy tied to failed climate change policy in this STEM-inspired series starter.

Centuries ago, Earth’s plants turned toxic, rendering life on the planet impossible, and humanity took to space to cultivate new homes. Myra Porter is in her first year at an elite school on the Moon to train and develop her Creer in math as a Number Whisper—like her famous Number Whisperer parents. But she’s crumbling under the pressure, she doesn’t fit in, and worst of all, the tattoos that signal her Creer growing aren’t developing. In her heart, she knows she doesn’t have a Creer, and soon, everyone else will, too.

My Review

I can definitely see the comparison to THE SECRET GARDEN and CITY OF EMBER in this book. I think I kept wishing for more overlap with THE SECRET GARDEN, though. Like, I kept looking for or hoping for my favorite things about that story to be included in this book. There are a few things that made it into MOONGARDEN, though.

In THE SECRET GARDEN, the main character, Mary, follows a robin who leads her to the garden. In MOONGARDEN, a small robot Myra names Bin-ro, taken from the ID label on its underside, leads her to a hidden garden. I really enjoyed the parts with his character. There’s also an older man who was once a gardener who helps her, like Ben from the original story.

Just like in CITY OF EMBER, Myra and her friends discover a cover-up that could indicate their whole civilization is in danger. She also discovers forgotten and forbidden magic that could save everyone.

So there are a lot of really cool elements to the story, and I thought all of those elements worked well together.

I guess I kind of have mixed feelings about the main character, Myra. There were things I liked about her a lot. She doesn’t back down when she believes in something, even if the idea is unpopular. That stubbornness sometimes frustrated me, though. Maybe I wanted to see the garden have an effect on her the way it does Mary in THE SECRET GARDEN? I’m not sure what I hoped for there.

On the whole, I love that this is a middle grade sci-fi novel, and I think readers who liked CITY OF EMBER should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
One character, Bernie, is a clone and has fewer rights/isn’t seen as truly human. Lila, Myra’s friend and roommate is described as having brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Most characters have a certain affinity for magic.

Violent Content
Some instances of bullying.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Suspicion
Alexandra Monir
Random House Childrens’ Books
Published December 9, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After her parents die in a suspicious fire at their family estate, Imogen wants nothing more to do with her family or her heritage at Rockford manor. When her cousin, once her closest friend and ally, also perishes, Imogen stands as the last relative capable of inheriting the property. She returns home alone to the site of countless childhood memories, of which she is now the last survivor. When police uncover evidence that her cousin’s death may not have been accidental, Imogen realizes the murderer must be among the faithful few left nearest to her. The truth will shock her.

This is one of those stories which begins at the climax and leaps back to its beginning to retell events as they happened. It’s not my favorite plot device, but it’s difficult not to invest in this story for its own sake. The pace is quick and the stakes only get higher, sort of like one part Princess Diaries, one part fairytale and one part suspense. It has this sort of otherworldly yet historical flavor to it. Seems odd, but in this case it turns out to be a great mix.

The storytelling is solid and the characters thoughtful and sometimes surprising. The plot is peppered with these really strange moments that at the time seem too bizarre to work into the plot, but the author does a great job of pulling all those odd moments together to make the whole story make sense.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of very mild profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
Imogen has the power to cause plants to grow and flourish rapidly. There are rumors of a curse on the Rockford family from generations past and rumors of a secret hidden within the garden.

Violence
Police investigate the violent death of a teenaged girl. Few details given, but the cause of death was head trauma.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

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Counting by 7s
Holly Goldberg Sloan
Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Group
Published August 29, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A car accident changes everything for Willow, a twelve year-old prodigy. Her family is gone and she is at the mercy of the state’s resources for childcare. As she pulls together the paths of her life that have led her to this tragedy, she reaches out to the only friend she has: a young Vietnamese girl whose brother shares the same guidance counselor as Willow does.

Mai convinces her mother to care for the girl and fight for long-term custody. At first, the sole proprietor of a nail salon resists her daughter’s urging, but she can’t help but be captured by Willow’s grief and loneliness. Together she and the guidance counselor, Mr. Dell Duke, weave a web of support around the lost but brilliant girl and the loose association quickly becomes a community which, like Willow’s incredible public garden project, grows into a family.

Willow’s stunning and awkward brilliance sets her apart from other kids. Where her parents nurtured and understood her quirks and intelligence, much of the rest of the world seems intimidated and annoyed by it. Willow struggles to cope by digging deeper into knowledge, her one comfort.

While she often fumbles through social situations, Willow is deeply self-aware. She often recognizes when she offends her companions and quickly works to right the situation. Her awkwardness is so endearing and her desire to please and earn affection can’t help but charm even the hardest hearts, but her social awareness almost makes her too perfect. A struggle to correct or repair the fallout of failed social moments may have provided additional conflict and character development as well as an essential, though admittedly predictable flaw.

The story itself is filled with warmth and realism without losing itself to controversial language or situations. The protagonist’s youth recommends her to younger readers, but the complexity of the characters’ relationships makes this a valuable read for both middle school and high school students. Counting by 7s reminds us of the power of community and in caring for one another, regardless of family connections or racial differences. This is a book not to be missed.

Profanity and Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None, though at the end of the story, two adult characters make plans to live together unmarried.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

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