After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.
My Review Reached was my favorite book in this series. Through all three books, poetry has served as a kind of rallying point, encouraging Cassia and Ky and others to oppose the Society. In Reached, though, Cassia takes her love of art further by beginning to create her own and to gather others who do the same. At first, she’s told that creating new things doesn’t matter. Even The Rising, which she values so highly, doesn’t hold any love for creativity. Cassia doesn’t agree with them, so she faces a choice on whether to be totally devoted to The Rising, which she’s always dreamed of, or to be kind of on her own side. A free agent, more like Ky has always been.
In some ways this story reminded me of the Matrix trilogy, where things are not at all as they seem. The Society. The Rising. The pandemic sweeping through the provinces. There’s always more going on beneath what they’re telling Cassia, Xander, and Ky. I loved that layered feeling it gave the story. And I loved that it made the story about more than an uprising and shift in power. The answer wasn’t as simple as swapping The Society for The Rising. Which made the story a lot more interesting to me.
I definitely recommend the series to readers looking for clean dystopian books. The second book was a little draggy to me, but on the whole, I thought the series was good.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Cassia wonders about what people experience after death as she’s flying and seeing the sky and clouds.
Violent Content A vicious illness spreads rapidly through the population, unleashed by one group as part of a battle strategy.
Drug Content
The Society gives each person a case with three pills in it. The red pill causes memory loss, and is used by the Society to make people forget things they’ve done or seen.
About Moonrise
‘They think I hurt someone.
But I didn’t. You hear?
Coz people are gonna be telling you
all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.’
As Joe’s older brother nears his execution date, Joe journeys to visit him before the end. He struggles to understand what happened from the night Ed’s accused of murder through the twists and turns in the justice system. Now, barely able to provide for himself, Joe tries his best to support his brother and hold onto the hope that his brother will have justice before he dies.
My Review Moonrise shines a light on some cracks in the criminal justice system. I feel like cracks isn’t the right word. Holes? Canyons? I’m not sure. Nevertheless, reading a story about someone who seems to have been wrongfully convicted can’t be easy.
Joe’s whole life is a struggle, but his brother Ed was one of the brightest spots in it as he grew up, fatherless, and with a drug-addicted mother. That changes when Ed goes to prison for murder, even though there isn’t much evidence to support the conviction. Now he tries to be a support to his brother in what may be his final days, even though he has no idea what to say or how to say it. Even though he can barely afford to survive on his own in the small Texas town where Ed’s imprisoned.
The story has a lot of grim moments, but it’s not without hope. Joe befriends a young woman who teaches him about forgiveness and love. He meets a Chaplin who challenges him to be strong. His sister and aunt find ways to love one another despite the difficult circumstances they find themselves in.
Did I like the story? For some reason, I find it tough to answer that. It’s an uncomfortable read in some ways. I found I couldn’t read it without examining my own thoughts on issues like the death penalty and police procedures surrounding suspects and pressure to elicit a confession. I think this was the author’s point, so in that way, the story must be a success. Was it a comfortable read? No. Not at all. But there are a lot of books worth reading that aren’t comfortable. I have to call this one of them.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Joe and his brother meet with a Chaplin who brings them comfort.
Violent Content Joe’s brother has been accused and convicted of shooting a police officer. No descriptions of the officer’s death.
Drug Content
Joe and a girl smoke pot together in one scene. In another, they drink alcohol.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
About A Snicker of Magic
Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place, a town where people could sing up thunderstorms and dance up sunflowers. But that was long ago, before a curse drove the magic away. Twelve-year-old Felicity knows all about things like that; her nomadic mother is cursed with a wandering heart.
But when she arrives in Midnight Gulch, Felicity thinks her luck’s about to change. A “word collector,” Felicity sees words everywhere—shining above strangers, tucked into church eves, and tangled up her dog’s floppy ears—but Midnight Gulch is the first place she’s ever seen the word “home.” And then there’s Jonah, a mysterious, spiky-haired do-gooder who shimmers with words Felicity’s never seen before, words that make Felicity’s heart beat a little faster.
Felicity wants to stay in Midnight Gulch more than anything, but first, she’ll need to figure out how to bring back the magic, breaking the spell that’s been cast over the town . . . and her mother’s broken heart.
My Review A Snicker of Magic has been on my to-be-read list for a super long time, and I’m so glad I finally made time to read it. I loved the way the author used words and the description of how Felicity sees them to add to the story. Also loved her friendship with Jonah and the Beedle, who performs anonymous good deeds for others.
Felicity wrestles with her parents’ separation on her own, often feeling like her mom is too sad to approach about her dad’s absence. She worries about her mom a lot and feels torn between her loyalty to her family and her desire to put down roots and have a real friend someplace. Those feelings made it so easy to love her and root for her throughout the story.
Be warned—this story will probably leave you with a fierce craving for ice cream, especially for one of Dr. Zook’s famous ice cream flavors. Yum!
Some elements of A Snicker of Magic reminded me of Be Light Like a Bird in terms of a girl wrestling with family issues and mom with wanderlust who takes on a town crisis.
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Cultural Elements
Characters appear to be white. Jonah is in a motorized wheelchair. The story takes place in a small Tennessee town.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple references to Felicity’s aunt saying some “unsavory words.”
Romance/Sexual Content Felicity’s mom asks if she has a crush on a boy from school. A girl kisses a boy on the cheek.
Spiritual Content In the story, some members of the town once had magic that could do amazing things. One woman could sing up a storm. Another could turn invisible. Some could play music that set the whole town dancing. Two brothers used their magic against each other and left the town cursed. The story follows Felicity’s research into understanding the curse (some characters believe there’s no such thing) and whether it can be broken.
SOLO, a YA novel in poetic verse, tells the story of seventeen-year-old Blade Morrison, whose life is bombarded with scathing tabloids and a father struggling with just about every addiction under the sun—including a desperate desire to make a comeback. Haunted by memories of his mother and his family’s ruin, Blade’s only hope is in the forbidden love of his girlfriend. But when he discovers a deeply protected family secret, Blade sets out on a journey across the globe that will change everything he thought to be true.
My Review
Even though it’s told in verse, the details and imagery are so rich, I kept forgetting I was reading poetry. Alexander has this way of pulling you into each scene, really making you feel everything as the story unfolds. I felt Blade’s sweet hopes for his relationship with his girlfriend and his bitter disappointment and anger with his dad for every broken promise, every ruined moment.
I loved the way Blade’s music appeared in the story—both as lyrics he’d written, and his own emotional experience playing the guitar. His international journey wasn’t what I expected, but I liked the way the story pursued Blade’s process of grief over his mom’s death and his father’s failures and the journey toward forgiveness and peace.
The story’s a bit grittier than others I’ve read in this line, but the writing is absolutely superb.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation Blade and his family are black, and his father is a famous musician. He’s dating a white girl, the daughter of a reverend.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between a boy and girl and one vague reference to “exploring hands”—which Blade’s girl puts a stop to quickly enough. Blade observes another couple kissing. Blade mentions that his girlfriend intends not to have sex until marriage, but confusingly, she also claims she’ll never get married, so he wonders why she’s dating him in the first place.
Spiritual Content Vague references to Blade’s girlfriend’s parents attending church. At one point, faced with a scenic view, Blade’s dad makes a remark like, maybe there is a God.
Violent Content Blade breaks up a party after a boy makes some cutting remarks about his sister. A young girl vomits blood while she’s ill.
Drug Content Blade recalls a childhood memory of a party with his dad, a rock star. He drank whiskey and tasted cocaine in an effort to get noticed by his dad, and wound up in the hospital. His father went to jail. Later, his dad promises again and again he’ll quit drinking, then Blade finds him drunk again. At one point, his father ruins an important moment of Blade’s by showing up drunk and making a spectacle. Blade’s father’s behavior also leads to Blade being forbidden to see his girlfriend, since her father assumes Blade follows his father’s ways. Blade’s dad pushes his sister to have a big party to celebrate her record release. Attendees drink alcohol.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Through poetry and journal entries, Liz relates the story of her first year at NYU and her search for her birth mother. As she forms a circle of friends, she gradually shares with them the truth about her adoption and her search. She finds support and love from these friends and from her family, though each member of her family struggles with the search for different reasons. Liz won’t give up looking, even as one obstacle after another rises to meet her.
One of my favorite things about this story were all the references to literature and poetry contained in the text. It made me want to read a lot more poetry and to pick up my guitar and head to the park to play. Liz’s journey tugged my heart. Her thoughts and emotions come through so clearly and make it so easy to empathize with her.
I didn’t realize when I picked up this book that it’s the third (and last) in a series. After reading it, I would definitely consider reading the first two.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
Liz’s friend Henri is Asian. Her friend Calvin is African American. Liz’s friends briefly wonder if her friends Jan and Jade are lesbians, but they aren’t.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Liz wonders if her boyfriend has had sex. She’s a virgin. There’s a brief reference to one of the girls going home with one of the boys and spending the night with him. Liz kisses a boy.
Spiritual Content Liz’s family attend mass over the Christmas holiday. At one point she ducks into a church to read a letter. It feels like in that moment, church and faith are a safe place for her, though it’s not a theme that’s highly developed.
Liz has a brief but meaningful correspondence with a (Christian) woman of faith.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content
Liz thinks back to the summer after her father died when she spent too much time drinking and her studies suffered for it. More than once, she drinks alcohol with her friends to a local bar that doesn’t check identification early in the day.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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.
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