Tag Archives: Holiday House

Review: No Filter and Other Lies by Crystal Maldonado

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
No Filter and Other Lies by Crystal Maldonado

No Filter and Other Lies
Crystal Maldonado
Holiday House
Published February 8, 2022

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About No Filter and Other Lies

You should know, right now, that I’m a liar.

They’re usually little lies. Tiny lies. Baby lies. Not so much lies as lie adjacent.

But they’re still lies.

Twenty one-year-old Max Monroe has it all: beauty, friends, and a glittering life filled with adventure. With tons of followers on Instagram, her picture-perfect existence seems eminently enviable.

Except it’s all fake.

Max is actually 16-year-old Kat Sanchez, a quiet and sarcastic teenager living in drab Bakersfield, California. Nothing glamorous in her existence–just sprawl, bad house parties, a crap school year, and the awkwardness of dealing with her best friend Hari’s unrequited love. But while Kat’s life is far from perfect, she thrives as Max: doling out advice, sharing beautiful photos, networking with famous influencers, even making a real friend in a follower named Elena. The closer Elena and “Max” get–texting, Snapping, and even calling–the more Kat feels she has to keep up the facade.

But when one of Max’s posts goes ultra-viral and gets back to the very person she’s been stealing photos from, her entire world – real and fake — comes crashing down around her. She has to figure out a way to get herself out of the huge web of lies she’s created without hurting the people she loves.

But it might already be too late.

My Review

I had a hard time getting into this book. The writing and the voice are both strong– which I expected, since I loved Crystal Maldonado’s debut, FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA. I just didn’t really like Kat very much, especially at the beginning.

She knows she’s a liar, but she isn’t ready to face the ways her lies hurt the people closest to her. As she wrestles with love, including her own self-love, she does a lot of growing. By the end of the story, I liked her a lot.

Her family dynamics are complicated and messy, and I found I liked that element of the book. It made Kat’s character make a lot of sense. I think it was also a big part of what made her realize the harmfulness and ugliness of her own behavior.

On the whole, I think FAT CHANCE is still my favorite book by this author, but I did enjoy reading this one. I think fans of books like THE 9:09 PROJECT by Mark Parsons or TELL ME EVERYTHING by Sarah Enni should check this one out.

Content Notes for No Filter and Other Lies

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Kat is bisexual and Puerto Rican on her dad’s side. One of her friends is also Puerto Rican. Her best friend is Indian American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. In one scene they realize they are heading toward having sex and stop. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One of Kat’s friends makes fat jokes about her until she confronts him about it. One boy punches another boy in the face at a party.

Drug Content
Kat and her friends go to a party at her best friend’s house where teens drink alcohol. Kat and her best friend both drink too much and make some choices they regret later.

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 NO FILTER AND OTHER LIES in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson

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The Star That Always Stays
Anna Rose Johnson
Holiday House
Published July 12, 2022

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About The Star That Always Stays

When bright and spirited Norvia moves from the country to the city, she has to live by one new rule: Never let anyone know you’re Ojibwe.

Growing up on Beaver Island, Grand-père told Norvia stories–stories about her ancestor Migizi, about Biboonke-o-nini the Wintermaker, about the Crane Clan and the Reindeer Clan. He sang her songs in the old language, and her grandmothers taught her to make story quilts and maple candy. On the island, Norvia was proud of her Ojibwe heritage.

Things are different in the city. Here, Norvia’s mother forces her to pretend she’s not Native at all–even to Mr. Ward, Ma’s new husband, and to Vernon, Norvia’s irritating new stepbrother. In fact, there are a lot of changes in the city: ten-cent movies, gleaming soda shops, speedy automobiles, ninth grade. It’s dizzying for a girl who grew up on the forested shores of Lake Michigan.

Despite the move, the upheaval, and the looming threat of world war, Norvia and her siblings–all five of them–are determined to make 1914 their best year ever. Norvia is certain that her future–both professionally and socially–depends upon it… and upon her discretion.

But how can she have the best year ever if she has to hide who she truly is?

Sensitive, enthralling, and classic in sensibility (perfect for ANNE OF GREEN GABLES fans), this tender coming-of-age story about an introspective and brilliant Native American heroine thoughtfully addresses serious issues like assimilation, racism, and divorce, as well as everygirl problems like first crushes, making friends, fitting in, and the joys and pains of a blended family. Often funny, often heartbreaking, THE STAR THAT ALWAYS STAYS is a fresh and vivid story directly inspired by Anna Rose Johnson’s family history.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

My Review

I found this book to be absolutely charming. Norvia is a reader and shares her interest in a wide variety of books. Some, readers will be pretty familiar with– THE LITTLE PRINCESS, THE SECRET GARDEN, and ANNE OF GREEN GABLES for example. Others may be less familiar, but are no less accessible through Norvia’s passion for them.

One of the things I liked a lot about THE STAR THAT ALWAYS STAYS is Norvia’s journey through becoming part of a blended family. At the beginning, she’s suspicious of her mother’s new marriage and her stepfather. She finds her stepbrother awkward and annoying. As she gets to know them, though, she begins to see not only her mother’s love for her new husband, but his love for her and his devotion to all the children.

The story follows two different time periods. In one earlier time period, Norvia is a child living on Beaver Island. She listens to stories of her Ojibwe heritage from her grandfather. In the later time period, Norvia is ready to begin ninth grade and forced to hide the history she’s deeply proud of and connected to.

Norvia seeks her place in a new school, but she battles fierce prejudice. She looks to the heroines from her books for guidance on how to be well-liked and successful. What she discovers, however, is that her heritage offers even greater tools empowering her to connect with others and prepare her for her future.

In the Author’s Note at the back of the book, Anna Rose Johnson shares some of the details of her own family history that overlap with Norvia’s story. She also shares her desire to craft a story echoing some of the unforgettable tales that Norvia loves so much. I think she absolutely succeeded in doing that. Several times as I read, I thought of books Norvia loved and how much the story reminded me of them.

All in all, I’m a fan. I really enjoyed the family relationships and the classic tone of the story as well as its historical details. I think readers who enjoy historical fiction should definitely check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Norvia, her mother, and her siblings are Ojibwe.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Norvia finds comfort in Bible verses her stepfather and stepbrother give her. She shares them with her dad and brother and prays when she feels lost.

Violent Content
Some instances of bullying and meanness. There’s some prejudice against Norvia’s family because her mother is divorced.

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 THE STAR THAT ALWAYS STAYS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

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

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
Crystal Maldonado
Holiday House
Published February 2, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Fat Chance, Charlie Vega

Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. And be quieter.

But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.

A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

My Review

I have so many thoughts, and I’ve had days to try to organize them, but I’m still sifting. I feel like that’s always a good sign with a book. Sometimes simple books that don’t require thought afterward are fun, but I definitely prefer books that leave me with things to think about or emotions to process.

First, the relationships in this book. Wow. Charlie has a complex relationship with her mom. Her mom says gross and deeply critical-slash-toxic things to her about her body and her habits. It feels like she’s regurgitating the harmful things she’s been told about being fat, which is both wrong and terrible, but also made me hurt for her. The story isn’t about her, but that underlying hurt made Charlie’s mom a complicated character and helped us see why Charlie had big feelings about her mom.

Relationships Make the Book

Charlie’s relationship with Amelia. Also wow. I loved Amelia, and I loved some of the components of Charlie and Amelia’s friendship. I loved that as different things happened in the book, I felt like I got to observe them and see not just Charlie’s perspective, but I felt like there were subtle cues about when she was wrong, too. That balance is really difficult– if things are too subtle, they’ll go unnoticed, but if they’re too bold, the story feels forced. So I think the balance there was expertly managed.

Additionally, I loved the first love component of FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA, too. The heartbreak. The challenges to trust. Charlie’s moments of self-reflection. Also, Charlie’s experience of falling in love for the first time, and having to figure out how to navigate all those first-love challenges herself.

All in all, I think this one will stick with me a long time. I loved so many moments in the story, and I think the character relationships are absolutely amazing. Readers looking for a first love story, add this one to your list. Fans of PRETTY FUNNY FOR A GIRL by Rebecca Elliot should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charlie is Puerto Rican and plus-sized. Her best friend Amelia is Black and pansexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. References to touching over clothes. Charlie’s friend Amelia makes plans to have sex with her boyfriend. He breaks up with her when she decides she can’t go through with it.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Charlie and Amelia drink alcohol in one scene.

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 FAT CHANCE, CHARLIE VEGA in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Boy Who Met a Whale by Nizrana Farook

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The Boy Who Met a Whale
Nizrana Farook
Peachtree Publishing
Published on February 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Boy Who Met a Whale

From the author of THE GIRL WHO STOLE AN ELEPHANT comes another brilliant escapade. A thrilling adventure set in fictional Sri Lanka, jam-packed with peril and kidnap and a huge blue whale!

Razi, a local fisherboy, is watching turtle eggs hatch when he sees a boat bobbing into view. With a chill, he notices a small, still hand hanging over the side… Inside is Zheng, who’s escaped a shipwreck and is full of tales of sea monsters and missing treasure. But the villains who are after Zheng are soon after Razi and his sister, Shifa, too. And so begins an exhilarating adventure in the shadow of the biggest sea monster of them all…

My Review

I really enjoyed reading THE BOY WHO MET A WHALE. Razi and his sister are still grieving over their dad’s death when Zheng washes up on their beach. Zheng tells all kinds of wild stories, and at first Razi and Shifa aren’t sure what to believe about them. When two of Zheng’s former shipmates make it clear they intend to kill Zheng, though, Razi and Shifa decide they have to help him escape.

The three go on an adventure over the sea, following clues on a map Zheng’s captain left him. They’re determined to find an important treasure and return it to its rightful owner. Zheng’s two former shipmates, Marco and Cook, pursue them, making it clear they’ll stop at nothing to get the treasure.

I loved so many things about this book. The way they worked together to decode the treasure map. All their plans to outsmart the men chasing them. The way the three of them bonded and became close friends. I kind of wish there had been more scenes with Maalu the whale, though. She definitely played an important role, I think I just wanted more scenes with her or maybe something where the kids helped her, too?

On the whole, I loved this book, though, and I would love to read THE GIRL WHO STOLE AN ELEPHANT, which is also by the same author.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Razi and Shifa are Sri Lankan.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Two men chase and threaten to kill the kids. A boy hits a man in the face with a fish.

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 this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Everywhere Blue by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz

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Everywhere Blue
Joanne Rossmassler Fritz
Holiday House
Published June 1, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Everywhere Blue

After twelve-year-old Maddie’s older brother vanishes from his college campus, her carefully ordered world falls apart. Nothing will fill the void of her beloved oldest sibling. When her parents fly out to Strum’s college to search for answers, Maddie is left in the care of her sixteen-year-old sister, who seeks solace in rebellion and ignores Maddie. Drowning in grief and confusion, the family’s musical household falls silent.

Though Maddie is the youngest, she knows Strum better than anyone. He used to confide in her, sharing his fears about the climate crisis and their planet’s future. So, Maddie starts looking for clues: Was Strum unhappy? Were the arguments with their dad getting worse? Or could his disappearance have something to do with those endangered butterflies he loved . . .

Scared and on her own, Maddie picks up the pieces of her family’s fractured lives. Maybe her parents aren’t who she thought they were. Maybe her nervous thoughts and compulsive counting mean she needs help. And maybe finding Strum won’t solve everything–but she knows he’s out there, and she has to try.

A brother’s disappearance turns one family upside down, revealing painful secrets that threaten the life they’ve always known.

My Review

When I started reading this book, I was super excited to learn that Maddie plays the oboe! You might remember from my review of AS FAR AS YOU’LL TAKE ME (another book featuring an oboist) that I’m pretty much surrounded by oboe players. I feel like it’s an unusual instrument to play, so I’m really excited that I’ve found two books that include the oboe.

EVERYWHERE BLUE is a novel in verse from Maddie’s point of view. She’s a hard working, super anxious girl who doubts her musical ability but also sees her life in musical terms. I loved her from the first page. Her family relationships are complicated. The person she’s closest to, Strum, her brother, has gone off to college. Her sister is angry and isolates herself from the family. Her father is angry and uses rules to control the household. Maddie often looks to her mother to comfort her and bring the family together.

I think I imagined from the cover summary that the story would be focused on Maddie finding the trail of breadcrumbs to learn what happened to her brother. And she does look for clues and wonder. But the bulk of the story focuses on Maddie and her processing what has happened to her family and her attempts to keep them together. I still enjoyed that a lot– this is a really rich emotional story. Maddie also processes a lot through her music, so I loved all the scenes that showed her practicing or listening to a piece of music that moved her. It made me want to find recordings of the music from the story to listen to.

I think readers who enjoy novels in verse, like ALONE by Megan E. Freeman, or stories about an emotional journey within a fractured family, like GLITTER GETS EVERYWHERE by Yvette Clark will want to add this one to their shelves.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Maddie has a counting ritual that she uses to cope with anxiety. She’s not labeled/diagnosed in the story. Maddie’s best friend is Asian-American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
In one scene, Maddie sees a girl sitting on a boy’s lap.

Spiritual Content
At one point Maddie says something like, if there’s a god, she hopes he’ll keep her brother safe.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Maddie’s older sister comes home smelling like pot. (Maddie doesn’t specifically identify the smell.) Later, Maddie sees her sister and her sister’s friends drinking beer.

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

Review: The People We Choose by Katelyn Detweiler

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The People We Choose
Katelyn Detweiler
Margaret Ferguson Books
Published May 4, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The People We Choose

When Calliope Silversmith meets her new neighbor Max, their chemistry is instantaneous, but the revelation of her biological father’s identity throws her whole life into disarray.

Calliope Silversmith has always had just two friends in her small Pennsylvania town, Ginger and Noah, and she’s fine with that. She’s never wanted anything more than her best friends, her moms, their house in the woods, and their family-run yoga studio–except maybe knowing who her sperm donor is. Her curiosity has been building for years, and she can finally find out this summer when she turns eighteen.

But when Max and his family move into the sad old house across the woods from Calliope, she realizes it’s nice to get to know someone new, so nice that she decides to break her no dating rule. The stability of her longtime trio wavers as she and Max start to spend more and more time together.

When Calliope finally finds out who her sperm donor is, she learns a truth more shocking and unfathomable than she could have ever dreamed: her donor is Max’s father. How is this even possible? As she and Max struggle to redefine their friendship, Calliope realizes that she can turn a horrific situation into something positive by recognizing and accepting that family is both the one we are born into and the one we choose to make.

My Review

I love relationship books– and this is definitely a relationship book. Calliope has two lifelong best friends, one of whom is in love with her. She doesn’t return those feelings, though, and for a while, things go unsaid and unacknowledged. Max’s arrival and the obvious chemistry between Calliope and Max changes that, though.

I identified with that conflict so much– the complicated situation that a friendship where one person has greater feelings can become. I still have a lot of feelings of guilt and regret over a relationship in my own past, so it was both heartbreaking and cathartic to see that conflict on the page. I remember literally thinking some of the things Calliope thinks in wrestling with the relationship, so that felt real to me. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another book tackle that situation in such a real, frank way.

Another thing I liked is the fact that while the story has some romantic feelings in it, it doesn’t center around romance. It really explores what makes a family and how to redefine relationships in the face of difficult changes. I liked the way Calliope’s moms were protective and paying attention, but that they also gave her space to find her own way. I felt like their relationships had a great balance in that way.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading PEOPLE WE CHOOSE. I think people who enjoyed YOUR DESTINATION IS ON THE LEFT by Lauren Spieller or who like books exploring relationships will enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Max is Black. Ginger is a lesbian. Calliope has two moms.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning for Incest
Brief descriptions of kissing between boy and girl (who turn out to be siblings and really grossed out about it later.)

Reference to a kiss between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of heated arguments between adults. Brief description of a woman’s accidental death.

Drug Content
One minor character is an alcoholic.

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