Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

Finally Seen

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by Kelly Yang
First sentence: “I listen to the quiet hum of the plane and the not-so-quiet flutter of my heart in my chest.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is bullying and microaggressions both by other children and adults. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore. I read this book for the Cybils, and this reflects my opinion and not that of the whole panel.

Lina Gao has lived with her grandmother in China for the past five years while her parents and younger sister start a new life in America. She has missed her family but loved her time with her grandmother. But now, her parents have sent for her. She is racked with guilt for leaving her grandmother to go live in a retirement home, but excited to start a new life in America. Unfortunately, it’s not all happiness and roses. She can’t speak English well, so starting a new school is difficult for her. Her parents and sister have a bond that she isn’t part of. And then there’s her parents’ financial situation: back rent from the pandemic is due and her father’s boss at the organic farm is pretty sketchy.

Through the ups and downs of Lina’s life, she gains some friends, helps her parents figure out their finances, and figures out how to navigate her school. And in the end, she feels like maybe she can make a place for herself in her new life.

I liked this one. Reading the author’s note, it seems that some of this reflects Yang’s experience, which makes it that much more interesting. It’s a good immigrant story and a good reminder that everyone wants the best life they can have. Several white adults (mostly men) came off pretty bad in this – they were bullies and racist towards Lina and her family. (One of them – the father of a friend of Lina’s did start to learn and change…) This is a good reminder of how adults tend to use and abuse their power. I like the portrayal of the immigrant story, and I think it’s definitely an important book to have on shelves.

Audiobook: Bookshops & Bonedust

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by Travis Baldree
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Legends & Lattes
Content: There is swearing, including many f-bombs, and some violence. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

In this prequel to Legends & Lattes, Viv finds herself injured and unexpectedly laid up due to an injury in the seaside town of Murk. She’s accustomed to being active, so having to convalesce is not something she wants to do. In her wandering around the down, she discovers a run-down bookshop whose owner, Fern, struggles to make ends meet. Viv discovers the benefit of knowing a good bookseller (!) and falls into a friendship with Fern. She also has a sweet summer romance with a baker in town. And, on top of everything, there’s a mysterious man in gray who leaves behind (well – he dies, so kinda) a bag full of bones that turns out to be a homunculus named Satchel.

Like the first one, not much happens in this book. (Granted, more happens in this than in the first one.) But, it’s still sweet, charming, super cozy, and enjoyable. The characters are fun, and the world Baldree has created is clever. I have really come to enjoy his narration as well; it’s incredibly engaging. So, no, there’s not a lot of plot in these, but they are so much fun to listen to. 

Sincerely Sicily

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by Taika Burgess
First sentence: “Demanding to see the email only shows me how real this all is.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is bullying and microaggressions. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore. I read this book for the Cybils, and this reflects my opinion and not that of the whole panel.

Sicily is upset: for her 6th grade year she is going to a new school, away from all her friends. She doesn’t want to, but she doesn’t have a choice. It’s made worse by the fact that there isn’t many non-white kids at her school. It’s made worse because she is a Black Panamanian – and the kids at school don’t understand that heritage. Then there’s her Abuela, who is critical of Sicily’s box braids, calling them “low class”. Sicily just feels picked on from all sides. How will she ever figure out this new school?

I liked this one a lot. I liked that Burgess focused on the Black Panamanian heritage, but also that she gave Sicily some friend problems as well as a new crush. It made the book well-rounded, capturing every part of Sicily’s journey. I also learned quite a bit about Panama and the heritage of Black people there, which I also liked. It was a really good book!

Monthly Round-Up: November 2023

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Not surprisingly, there was a lot of Middle Grade Fiction read this month. My favorite is one of them, though you’ll have to remember that this is my opinion and not the one of the whole panel. it’s just the one that spoke to me this month.

What Happened to Rachel Riley?

I just thought it was very clever. As for the rest:

Adult Fiction:

Iron Flame (audiobook)
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (audiobook)

Middle Grade:

The Fire, the Water, and Maudi MGinn
The Puppets of Spellhorst (audiobook)
Leeva at Last
When Sea Becomes Sky
Tethered to Other Stars
We the Sea Turtles

Graphic Novel:

Mexikid
Ink Girls

YA:

Check & Mate

What was your favorite this month?

Audiobook: Everyone On This Train is a Suspect

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by Benjamin Stevenson
Read by Barton Welch
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
Content: There was some swearing, including a couple f-bombs, and (of course) some murders. It’s in the mystery section of the bookstore.

Ernest Cunningham has spent the last year since his book about his “true” experiences came out attending festivals and enjoying modest success. However, he’s been given a fairly sizeable advance for a second book, which he’s having trouble writing. So when he’s invited to go on the Ghan – a train that travels the width of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide – as part of the Australian Mystery Writers festival, he accepts. What he hopes for is inspiration – most notably in the form of a super popular mystery writer – and what he gets is a couple of murders to solve.

Much like Stevenson’s other book, this one is the thing while spoofing the thing, though this one isn’t nearly as fun as I thought the first one was. It started out strong and fun, but it got bogged down near the middle – granted, that may have had something to do with the car trouble we were having at the time – and by the end, I wasn’t sold on the solution (granted, we were driving 40 miles per hour in a rental car after having spun out in a snowstorm, so I my opinion may be a bit off). I did have fun, and there were some real laugh-out-loud moments. The Australian narrator was a lot of fun to listen to again, and I liked how he made the characters – both British and American ones as well as Australian ones this time – pop.

But, I’m not sure this format works more than once.

We the Sea Turtles

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by Michelle Kadarusman
First sentence: “In 2003, a leatherback turtle traveled from a remote island chain in Indonesia to the Oregon coast in the western United States of America.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: The chapters are short, and pretty easy to comprehend I read this book for the Cybils, and this reflects my opinion and not that of the whole panel.

This book is a series of short stories connected because they are all set on islands, with mentions of turtles. They are all environmental in nature, either with concerns about climate change or how to better live on the land. They range around the world – from children in Canada and the US to Indonesia and Australia. The stories were pretty simple, most only a few pages long. I liked that there was a book addressing the environmental concerns of children this age, though I do wish the stories were longer and delved more deeply into the issues that were brought up. I liked the diversity in the book, and I did appreciate that most chapters had a land acknowledgment before them. I just wish there was more to it.

Ink Girls

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by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are some intense moments. It’s in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Cinzia is a printer’s apprentice in the fictional city of Siannnerra, where her master is insistent that the city’s people need to know the Truth. But when she puts out an avvisi about the Lord Councilman, the principessa’s brother, it gets her arrested, and Cinzia is on the run. She makes an unusual friend – the principessa’s daughter – and the two of them work together to find the proof that the Lord Councilman really is as corrupt as the avvisi says he is. It’s not easy, especially for a couple young girls who are on the run from the soldiers.

I really liked this graphic novel. I like the historical feel of it – it feels like medieval/Renaissance Italy, even though the setting is fictional. And I liked that the girls worked together with the people of the city – the ones those in power ignore – to bring down a corrupt official. There was enough tension and action to keep the pages turning, and I liked how the girls’ characters came across.

I haven’t read Nijkamp’s other books, and I think I need to fix that.

Audiobook: Iron Flame

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by Rebecca Yarros
Read by Rebecca Soler & Teddy Hamilton
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: Fourth Wing
Content: It’s super sweary, super violent, and lots of on-screen sexytimes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Fourth Wing, obviously.

This picks up right after the events of Fourth Wing, with Violet recovering from the venin attack. From there, they go back to Basgaith for graduation and year two. But this year is a lot different. First off, Xaden and his dragon are stationed away from the War college so he and Violet are basically forced to spend their weekends together because of their bonded dragons. Of course, they don’t mind. (#sexytimes) Then there’s the wacked-out, facist new head of the war college, who has it out for Violet – like to the point of nearly killing her several times. And then there’s the whole rebellion and the fact that Navarre is hiding the impending Doom from its citizens. 

On the one hand, Soler is still delightfully unhinged (especially sped up 1.5x) and makes these books enjoyable. Because, there’s so much that is just plot holes. I was actually shouting at the audiobook this time; Violet – nay, all the characters, really – were just slow and not askign the right questions. And there were several WTH moments. And then there was the fact that it was just a LOT. A LOT of violence. A LOT of sex. A LOT of trying to make relationship work. A LOT, period. 

Will I read the next one? Maybe. Probably. They’re still fun, even if this one wasn’t as much fun as Fourth Wing was. 

Mexikid

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by Pedro Martín
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is some bullying and teasing by siblings, and talk of death. It’s in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Pedro is one of nine children, the son of immigrant parents – he and his younger siblings were born in the US; his parents and older siblings immigrated from Mexico – which makes him, a “Mexikid”. Not really Mexican enough, but also not really American enough. And then, one Christmas break, Pedro’s family drives back to their hometown to fetch his abuelito and bring him back to live with them. It’s a life-changing trip, not only because of the adventures Pedro has but because of the things he learns about his family.

I thought this was a lot of fun! I loved how Martin portrayed his boisterous, big family; you could tell that family is super important to him. Sure, the siblings fought and teased, but there was genuine affection there. And I liked how he brought in his family history while relating the events of the trip they took. It was entertaining, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable to read about this particular time in history. I liked the art – and the ways Martin used the art to tell his story.

Highly recommended.

Tethered to Other Stars

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by Elisa Stone Leahy
First sentence: “Wendy and Tom sat on the plastic-wrapped sofa in the middle of the sidewalk and stared up at the crooked house.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is bullying and name calling and both racist microagressions as well as racist behavior. It’s in the Middle Grades (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.I read this book for the Cybils, and this reflects my opinion and not that of the whole panel.

Wendy’s family used to live in a bustling Latine neighborhood of their Ohio town, one where there were lots of families like hers. But then La Migra – ICE – started taking more and more people; parents would disappear, families gone overnight. And Wendy’s parents became unnerved. So they found the cheapest fixer-upper in a nearby town, one that was more white, in hopes that La Migra would leave them alone. Because, while Wendy’s dad was adopted by an American relative when he was little, and Wendy and Tom were born in America, Wendy’s mom has a green card, and maybe that’s not quite enough for ICE. The best thing is to keep their heads down and not make any waves.

Except, at Wendy’s new, mostly white, school for gifted student, she’s finding it hard to keep her head down. She make friends with a Black girl, K. K.; and a Muslim one, Yasmin; and the daughter of a white pastor who is giving sanctuary to a woman whom ICE is trying to deport. And when their little group becomes targets for the richer, whiter kids in school, things get, well, a bit messy.

It sounds like a lot, and it is, but Leahy makes it work. Wendy is the first-generation daughter of immigrant parents, and Leahy weaves that in. She weaves in treating those who are looking for a new, better home in America humanely. She weaves in STEM – Wendy is fascinated with space and astronomy and wants to be an astrophysicist. And she weaves in the real ways in which white kids absorb the opinons and actions of their parents. You can tell what kind of parents the kids have by the way their kids treat those not like them.

It’s a good book with a good heart, and some tense moments. And in the end, I loved how everyone grew, learned, and changed for the better.