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Brown Girl Dreaming

5/22/2015

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"My mother has a gap between
her two front teeth. So does Daddy Gunnar.
Each child in this family has the same space
connecting us."

It's hard to write anything about this book that will do it justice.  On the surface it's a memoir about an African American author growing up during the Civil Rights Movement.  But it's not really about any one thing just as a person's life isn't about any one thing.  There are parts about her family, her struggles with learning to read, and how she eventually found her voice as an author. The things Woodson chooses to describe are just as interesting as the way she chooses to describe them.  The language is simply gorgeous.  If you have an interest in memoirs, history, poetry, family life, or just want to read something extremely well-written then this is the book for you.  


"On paper, things can live forever.
On paper, a butterfly
never dies."

Erica's Picks
4th - 7th Grade
Tags: Biography, Family Life, History, Novels in Verse, People of Color, Poetry

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Salvage

5/21/2015

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Ava dreams of Earth, but she has never set foot on solid land.  She lives on a Crewe ship where everyone has a place and a job. She longs to learn how to fix things or go down to Earth, but that's men's work.  Women have their own work like cooking and laundry.  The other women tell her that the longing for Earth and other things she can't have will go away once she gets married and has children.  As the captain's daughter the odds are good she'll make a fine match--maybe even as a first wife.  But just when everything seems to be coming together, disaster strikes and she has to flee everything she has ever known for the perils of a life on land.   

Reading about the Crewe ship society with its mythology and social constructs is fascinating and that's just the beginning of the fully developed settings Ava lives in. The characters are as richly layered and diverse as the settings and had a way of staying with me.  If you like reading about gritty, dystopian futures and well developed characters overcoming trials and tribulations, then this is the book for you.

Erica's Picks
8th Grade
Tags: Character Driven, Dystopian, People of Color, Science Fiction

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Cruel Beauty

5/21/2015

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Before Nyx was born, her father made a deal with the ruler of their cursed kingdom.  Some call him the Gentle Lord others the Sweet Faced Calamity, but despite his handsome face he is centuries old and rules the kingdom through terror and tricks. Only the desperate or the foolish bargain with him and it always ends in tragedy.  Nyx knows this all too well.  The price of her father's deal was that one day Nyx would marry the Gentle Lord.  While Nyx's sister grew up coddled and loved Nyx was raised as a weapon crafted to destroy the Gentle Lord when her wedding day finally came.  So Nyx steeled her heart to her purpose and prepared to marry a monster.  But when she finally comes to live in his enchanted castle, killing him proves harder than she expected. The Gentle Lord is not the monster she anticipated. 

This is a Beauty and the Beast story mixed with Greek Mythology. The twists of both the enchanted castle and the plot provide an interesting puzzle to solve while the characters struggle to overcome their pasts and see the world complexly. The banter between Nyx and the Gentle Lord provides humor along the way. I'd give this to fans of fantasy, romance, greek mythology, and fairy tales retold.  Fans of Beauty and the Beast will particularly enjoy the dynamic between Ignifex and Nyx.


Erica's Picks
8th grade
Tags: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Mythology, Retellings, Romance

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