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This Week at TLT |
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Around the Web |
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Interested in what you see here? Be sure to order from your local indie store! Two of my favorite stores are |
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The Red Balloon |
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in St. Paul, MN and |
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The Children’s Book Shop |
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in Brookline Village, MA. |
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All descriptions from the publishers. |
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American as Paneer Pie by Supriya Kelkar |
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An Indian American girl navigates prejudice in her small town and learns the power of her own voice in this brilliant gem of a middle grade novel full of humor and heart, perfect for fans ofFront DeskandAmina’s Voice. (2) |
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You Say It First by Katie Cotugno |
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An addictive, irresistible YA novel about two teens from different worlds who fall for each other after a voter registration call turns into a long-distance romance—from Katie Cotugno, theNew York Timesbestselling author of99 Days. Perfect for fans of Mary H.K. Choi, Robin Benway, and Nicola Yoon. (2) |
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Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon |
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The Hating GamemeetsNick and Norah’s Infinite Playlistby way of Morgan Matson in this unforgettable romantic comedy about two rival overachievers whose relations***p completely transforms over the course of twenty-four hours. |
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Look at the box of fun that this book came in! |
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The Companion by Katie Alender |
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Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam |
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From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo. |
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Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe |
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From the award-winning author ofThe Field Guide to the North American Teenagercomes a whip-smart and layered romantic comedy. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han. |
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My Life in the Fish Tank by Barbara Dee |
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From acclaimed author ofMaybe He Just Likes YouandHalfway Normalcomes a powerful and moving story of learning how to grow, change, and survive. |
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Far From Normal by Becky Wallace |
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FromStealing Homeauthor Becky Wallace comes aDevil Wears Prada-inspired YA romance, in which “normal girl” Maddie must repair the image of Major League Soccer’s bad boy to ace her interns***p. A perfect read for fans of Morgan Matson and Miranda Kenneally. |
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The Pants Project by Cat Clarke |
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Liv knows he was always meant to be a boy, but with his new school’s terrible dress code, he can’t even wear pants. Only skirts. |
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The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm |
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You Know I’m No Good by Jessie Ann Foley |
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This razor-sharp novel from |
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Printz Honor winner and Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley will appeal to fans of Rory Power and Mindy McGinnis. |
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Challenging and thought-provoking, this stunning contemporary YA novel examines the ways society is stacked against teen girls and what one young woman will do to even the odds. |
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Background, Part 1: No, in fact, we don’t get paid to read |
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Background, Part 2: The Overwhelming Whiteness of Librarians***p and Education |
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Background, Part 3: The Canon |
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The Argument |
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Twelve or thirteen years ago I heard a piece on NPR about an engaged couple who were members of a conservative religious group and weren’t allowed to have any physical contact at all until the day they were married. |
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“Right now,” the man said, “the basic complication is that we can’t touch each other.” |
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That is a very good complication. |
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The two main characters in my new book, You Say It First, live eight hours apart—Meg in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Colby in rural Ohio—but they may as well have grown up in completely different dimensions. |
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They fall in love—or something like it—over the course of long, meandering, sometimes tough conversations that challenge them both to rethink certain inalienable truths about themselves and what they believe. |
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“I don’t know,” I said, when I first started toying with the idea of a project that touched, however lightly, on politics. “I’m not interested in writing a book about, like, two white people debating abortion. And I definitely don’t want to write about how we might believe different things, but deep down in our purest hearts we’re all really the same and all opinions are created equal.” |
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But I do think that part of being a human is navigating messy, complicated relations***ps with people whose experiences are different than yours are. And part of growing up is realizing you don’t know everything you thought you knew. |
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I think that’s a very good complication, too. |
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I’ve been thinking about Meg and Colby a lot lately, both as I try to figure out how to launch a book during a pandemic and as I’ve watched that first basic complication—we can’t touch each other—become literal in a way that never occurred to me as I was writing |
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Here is what I know to be true: we’re not all the same deep down in our purest hearts, and we’re not all weathering this storm from the same boat. But as we say goodbye to our old world and wait for the new one to reveal itself, I wonder if there’s a way for us to reach out and connect with each other in this strange place in between. |
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Meet Katie Cotugno |
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Katie Cotugno |
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Find Katie’s book at Frugal Bookstore and wherever books are sold. |
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About You Say It First |
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ISBN-13: 9780062674128Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersPublication date: 06/16/2020Age Range: 13 – 17 Years |
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Publisher’s Book Description: |
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When two adventurous cousins accidentally extend the last day of summer by freezing time, they find the secrets hidden between the unmoving seconds, minutes, and hours are not the endless fun they expected. |
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Karen’s Thoughts: |
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The Phantom Tollbooth |
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A Wrinkle in Time |
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
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Some Other Great Middle Grade Books About Weird Adventures and Towns |
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Storytelling is one of our most ancient and sacred abilities as humans. From cave drawings, to woven tapestries, to the bards in Ovid, to my abuela, whispering terrifying tales in the dark. |
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I don’t know how it started, but somehow, every night, my abuela would end up at the end of the bed my sister and I shared, swaddled in endless blankets like a giant child. |
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Because she understood something I do now. Words have power. Scary stories can make the room change—make the shadows on the wall longer, make the darkness hungrier. |
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Though my grandmother has been on a desperate, long journey to learn English since my sister and I were born, she never mastered it. So these stories were told the same way her mother had told them to her—in Spanish. |
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My grandmother knows dozens of stories that she can recite word for word—and they’ve never been written down. |
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These Colombian legends shaped my creative brain, during a time when it was still growing, when critical connections were being made. And they continue to influence me now. One story in particular, La niña con la estrella en la frente, inspired the world of my debut book, Emblem Island: Curse of the Night Witch. |
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Nothing can quite capture the magic of my grandmother telling stories herself, or my sister and I on the edge of our seats (only for my abuela to start snoring before we lightly kicked her awake again). But, hopefully, my book will introduce children who have never heard of these Latinx monsters to our beautiful, rich culture. |
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I’m lucky to still have my grandmother in my life. She’s still four-foot-eight, still laughs more than she talks, and still can’t quite speak English the way she wants to. |
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Because my abuela’s stories made me want to become a storyteller too. |
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Meet Alex Aster |
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About Curse of the Night Witch |
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A fast-paced series starter, perfect for fans ofAru Shah and the End of Timeand filled with adventure, mythology, and an unforgettable trio of friends. |
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ISBN-13: 9781492697206Publisher: SourcebooksPublication date: 06/09/2020Series: Emblem Island Series #1Age Range: 8 – 12 Years |
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The Cla***ic Pet Rock |
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Nail Polish Splatter Art Tile |
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DIY Hair Bows |
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Some Things to Consider When Creating Make and Take Craft Kits |
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Make and Take Craft Kit Resources |
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Like many people over thirty, after a month of sheltering in place, I finally took the leap and joined TikTok to make videos for AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE. |
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Somehow minutes turned to hours, as I found myself laughing louder than I had in weeks at the most ridiculous fifteen-second antics courtesy of other TikTok users. |
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It was the perfect distraction. |
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But within a couple days, TikTok figured out I was Indian-American, and I suddenly found my homepage full of videos from other South-Asian Americans. |
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I was intrigued because in my book, AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE, (Aladdin/Simon and Schuster), the main character Lekha, the only Indian-American middle-schooler in a small town in Michigan that doesn’t value diversity, also lists the questions she hears every day. Questions like “where’s your dot? Where are you from? Where are you really from?” and many more. Questions that aren’t coming from a good place. Questions that are meant to make the recipient feel less-than. |
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I had based these questions on the questions I had heard all the time growing up as one of the few South Asian-Americans in a small town in Michigan that didn’t value diversity. |
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I was dismayed that things really hadn’t improved much in all those years but I wasn’t surprised. |
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I was hopeful maybe things would be better when they got older but the TikTok videos were proving that might not be the case. I started to feel down, remembering how years of those questions had rendered me silent. |
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But then, somewhere in between watching the TikTok videos of South Asian-Americans defiantly answering the questions if they wanted to, or literally brus***ng them aside, swiping the text off-screen, not giving the ignorance their time if that’s what they chose to do, I realized that things had changed. |
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It’s my hope that readers of AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE, who haven’t yet found their way to deal with these questions, are inspired by Lekha’s story to speak out against hate as defiantly as that. |
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Meet Supriya Kelkar |
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Photo credit: |
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Follow Supriya on Twitter @supriyakelkar_ and on Instagram @supriya.kelkar |
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Supriya’s local indies are: |
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About American as Paneer Pie |
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ISBN-13: 9781534439382Publisher: AladdinPublication date: 06/09/2020Age Range: 8 – 12 Years |
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h****o from Minnesota. |
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As it’s so often said: it’s a privilege to have to learn about racism and not to have to experience it. |
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White friends, particularly those of us raising white boys: |
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Don’t wonder when we will go back to “normal” and don’t be complicit in allowing what many of us have come to accept as normal to remain how things are. Figure out how to dismantle racism and help dismantle other systems that depend on oppression and white supremacy. As Jason Reynolds said just the other day during the #KidLit4BlackLives rally, “Crawl toward judgement; sprint toward understanding.” |
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Black lives matter. George Floyd matters. Structural and inst**utional and cultural change matters. |
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Below are a handful of books I’ve reviewed in the recent past that address activism, protest, and social justice. |
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Learn, unlearn, listen, grow. |
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As those of us in Minnesota are still fond of saying, in the words of Paul Wellstone, “We all do better when we all do better.” |
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(Descriptions of books with post-it note reviews are from the publisher.) |
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Gr 6–9— |
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VERDICT |
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ISBN-13: 9781419737206Publisher: ABRAMSPublication date: 05/14/2019 |
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Into the Streets: A Young Person’s Visual History of Protest in the United States by Marke Bieschke |
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(POST-IT SAYS: Visually engaging with just enough info to educate without overwhelming. Represents a wide array of protests, both peaceful and violent, showing the long history of people exercising this right. Eye-opening. Ages 13-18) |
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We Are Power: How Nonviolent Activism Changes the World by Todd Hasak-Lowy |
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A stirring look at nonviolent activism, from American suffragists to Civil Rights to the Climate Change Movement |
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(POST-IT SAYS: My only complaint is that the format is unappealingly dense-appearing and lacking in pictures/color. Content is thorough and inspiring with an eye to the future and youth activism. A useful look at power, conflict, and social changes. Ages 10-14) |
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This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell, Aurelia Durand (Illustrator) |
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Who are you? What is racism? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? What can you do to disrupt it? Learn about social ident**ies, the history of racism and resistance against it, and how you can use your anti-racist lens and voice to move the world toward equity and liberation. |
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“In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist—we must be ANTI-RACIST.” —Angela Davis |
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origins of racism that we are still experiencing |
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the courage and power to undo it |
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Exercise prompts get you thinking and help you grow with the knowledge. |
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concepts of social ident**y, race, ethnicity, and racism |
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the ways people of different races have been oppressed |
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Find hope in stories of strength, love, joy, and revolution |
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written for EVERYONE who lives in this racialized society |
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be empowered to actively defy racism |
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(POST-IT SAYS: Phenomenal resource. I truly wisheveryonewould read this. Drives home the point that diversity and inclusion are not enough—you have to be actively anti-racist. Empowering and educational. Ages 12-18) |
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You Call This Democracy?: How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People by Elizabeth Rusch (3/31/2020) |
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(POST-IT SAYS: Packed full of information, contemporary examples, and appealing visuals. Educates as well as inspires partic****tion and action. For many, this comprehensive book will be an eye-opening look at the abuses and failures of government. Ages 13-18) |
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IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, Carolyn Choi, Ashley Seil Smith |
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IntersectionAllies |
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Ashley Seil Smith |
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Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw |
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Dr. Ange-Marie Hanc**** Alfaro |
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(POST-IT SAYS: A lovely little book advocating acceptance, inclusion, and community. Extensive back matter defines concepts further and provides a lengthy discussion guide. Ages 5-9) |
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Enough Is Enough: How Students Can Join the Fight for Gun Safety by Mich****e Roehm McCann, Shannon Watts (Foreword by) |
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From award-winning author Mich****e Roehm McCann comes a young activist’s handbook to joining the fight against gun violence—both in your community and on a national level—to make schools safer for everyone. |
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(POST-IT SAYS: A powerful and exhaustive resource that would be especially useful for a research project or debate. Looks at the problems, solutions, history, and actions that can be taken. Lots of illustrations, graphics, and personal stories will help sustain readers’ interest.) |
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One Person, No Vote (YA edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson, Tonya Bolden |
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From the award-winning,New York Timesbestselling author ofWhite Rage, a young readers’ edition of a startling—and timely—history of voter suppression in America. |
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(POST-IT SAYS: I’ve been on a nonfiction kick. Anderson’s book will educate and enrage. The history will be illuminating, but it’s the stats and stories of modern times that may really surprise readers and spur them to action.) |
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Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Candy J. Cooper, Marc Aronson |
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Based on original reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an industry veteran, the first book for young adults about the Flint water crisis |
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(POST-IT SAYS: Really thorough look at the crisis. Examines the history of Flint to put the tragedy in context. Full of quotes and pictures, and many voices of young people, readers will leave this book understanding more about environmental racism and justice. Be ready to be infuriated. Ages 13-18) |
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These little books have sat on my shelf for months and I’ve been so looking forward to getting to them. They did not disappoint. |
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These books read like really impa***ioned TED talks, interspersing personal histories and details with factual information and calls to action. |
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In Beyond the Gender Binary, |
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They emphasize the importance for the narrative around nonbinary people to be one of reclamation, acceptance, peace, and celebration in this powerful look at the toxic notion of a binary and the harmony and creativity of embracing a spectrum of gender ident**ies. |
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In The New q***** Conscience |
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A great reminder that there’s a huge, welcoming community that values you and that together it can be stronger and more effective. |
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In Imaginary Borders |
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Martinez focuses on the fact that there are many paths to activism, and that to inspire connection and action, we need to bring our imagination and creativity to the movement as well as diverse tactics. |
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In This Is What I Know About Art |
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Detailing her exploration of art in college and in interns***ps and jobs, she encourages us to ask who is not in the room and how can we get them there. |
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Illuminating and inspiring, all four books encourage more thoughtful conversations around these topics. Really well done. |
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Review copies (ARC) courtesy of the publisher. |
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Last year at Teen Lit Con, I presented on Social Justice and Activism. You can see a post about this presentation here—reading lists are included and downloadable. |
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And finally…. |
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I wanted to give some extra attention to two books I’ve loved in the past few years, both of which focus on teens in the Minneapolis area. |
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Dream Country by Shannon Gibney |
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Publisher’s description |
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The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom. |
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Amanda’s thoughts |
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Confession: I have been staring at the blank screen now for 18 minutes. I’ve been writing book reviews for 16 years, since I was in graduate school at Simmons. How many reviews have I written in those years—many hundreds, maybe more than a thousand? And yet here I sit, trying to put together even just one useful, coherent sentence that might begin to sum up how powerful, unique, and phenomenal this book is. I’m frowning as I type, because those words don’t even begin to do this novel justice. |
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We’re first introduced to Kollie, a 16-year-old Liberian boy living in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (just outside of Minneapolis) in 2008. |
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Devastated and ashamed, his parents send him away. |
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From here, we weave back and forth in time and location, meeting some of Kollie’s ancestors and following their struggles, losses, and achievements as they try to make their way through a world that doesn’t seem to want them to succeed or even to exist. |
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The stories are loosely tied together (in the sense that we’re following the line of one family and returning to the same place over and over), but read like short stories, complete on their own. |
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Gibney’scomplex look at one family, told through a wide scope, is moving and unlike anything I have ever read before in YA. This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Don’t miss it. |
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Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher |
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ISBN-13: 9780735231672 |
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Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group |
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Publication date: 09/11/2018 |
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The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus |
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Publisher’s description |
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Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus’s bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both. |
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Trinidad. |
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Minneapolis. |
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Junauda Petrus’s debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars. |
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Amanda’s thoughts |
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But while it gives you the broad strokes of the plot, it doesn’t do much to capture how powerful the story is, how beautiful the writing is, or how achingly lovely and profound the connection is between Agnes and Mabel. |
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There is so much to love about this story. |
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All of these voices and experiences speak of hope, connection, loneliness, love, isolation, and freedom. After they become pen pals, Afua tells Mabel that, despite his circ***stances, his life is still his own, and so is hers. |
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Be ready to lose a day once you start reading; Mabel and Agnes will draw you into their worlds and not release their grip on you even after the last page. A lovely story that is sad and hopeful all at once. |
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Review copy courtesy of the publisher |
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ISBN-13: 9780525555483Publisher: Penguin Young Readers GroupPublication date: 09/17/2019 |
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