Tag Archive | US author

Multicultural Children’s Book Day – windows & mirrors for us all

Jan27

Yes, books can be windows to other worlds, other lives.
Also they should be mirrors where we can see ourselves, yet the majority of kids’ and young adult books published in the US don’t reflect that. (see my June 2014 post here for statistics)

Today is Multicultural Children’s Book Day which aims to open eyes, spark discussion, provide resources, and spread the word about the available books with main characters who are not white, middle-class, and straight.

Visit the site to find myriad book lists by category, from Asian American Books for Kids of All Ages to Diverse Biography Picture Books, as well as book lists by geographic region and holidays.

You know that I recommend books outside bestsellers (where, let’s face it, the leads are most often white, hetero, economically comfortable), so I find wonderful diverse titles that lots of folks will enjoy. BookRiot’s recent article on “How to Read Diversely” highlights more ways to find good reads with diverse characters.

#ReadYourWorld or someone else’s with these recent books (click title for my no-spoilers recommendation):

book cover of If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth published by Arthur A Levine BooksIf I Ever Get Out of Here, by Eric Gansworth – Rez life, seeing into others’ lives, the Beatles

Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, by Joel Christian Gill – graphic novel featuring African Americans not shown in history books

Shelter, by Patricia Aust – trying to be a man without resorting to Dad’s violence

Orleans, by Sherri L. Smith – deadly Delta Fever is least of Fen’s worries in post-apocalyptic Gulf Coast

The Chaos, by Nalo Hopkinson – Jamaican-Canadian teen seeks her brother in city overtaken by mythic, storybook, nightmare beings

Riding Invisible, by Sandra Alonzo – escaping on horseback from violence at home

Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew – graphic novel of first Asian American superhero

Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel, by Diana Lopez – Mom’s cancer, Chia’s promesas, answers not always clear

Need more? Watch for Diverse Books as Genre in column on the right (under all the tags) – updating in progress.

What diverse books are your favorites?
**kmm

How It Went Down, by Kekla Magoon (book review) – gunshots, expectations, elusive truth

Jan22

book cover of How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon published by Henry Holt BFYRKilled while running an errand for mom,
is Tarik a statistic, a symbol,
a symptom of our problems?
#Blacklivesmatter

In single-person chapters, every person shows how their version of How It Went Down is right, but the details just don’t match up. Was Tarik in the Kings gang or not? Was he as good as little sister Tina believed or as cruel as Kimberly experienced?

And how could the police release the white guy who shot Tarik, who was in the neighborhood just to borrow a car, who claimed self-defense against a teen who had no gun? (Tarik didn’t, did he?)

Written and edited well before the troubles of later 2014, this thought-provoking book was published in October, so you should be able to find it at your local library or independent bookstore.

Where does the violence end?
**kmm

Book info: How It Went Down / Kekla Magoon. Henry Holt Books For Young Readers, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Blam-blam! Black teen shot dead by a white man’s gun – but that’s all that the eyewitnesses can agree on.

Who started it – the kid edging into gang life or the guy just passing through the neighborhood?

Was Tarik holding a gun or a candy bar? Was Jack a good citizen breaking up a gang scuffle or a vigilante doing what the cops wouldn’t?

Did senatorial candidate Rev. Sloan come to Underhill to help the community mourn and heal or to advance his campaign?

Can the late teen’s best pal Tyrell escape to college without Tarik standing between him and the Kings’ insistence that he join the gang and earn his knife?

Each friend, family member, street acquaintance, and bystander tells How It Went Down, their many voices threading throughout the book to weave a most complex picture of perceptions, assumptions, and misunderstandings. Many questions, no easy answers, a conversation which must continue.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Black Butterfly, by Shirley Reva Vernick (book review) – ghosts, winter, love

Jan17

book cover of The Black Butterfly by Shirley Reva Vernick published by Cinco Puntos PressChristmas away from Mom,
a place she’s never been,
love and mystery that she never expected!

Ghosts who can’t break free of the inn, strange relationships between inn employees – and what an inn! Super gourmet food, an innkeeper who drinks her dinner (Mom had never even mentioned Bubbles before now), and the innkeeper’s handsome son…

Published simultaneously in paperback and hardback, this 2014 title should be at your local library or independent bookstore. If you can’t find it, ask for it (or you’ll never discover the ghosts’ secrets!).

**kmm

Book info: The Black Butterfly / Shirley Reva Vernick. Cinco Puntos Press, 2014. [author Facebook page]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Mom’s extended ghost-hunting trip out west sends Penny to a Maine island inn for Christmas where she learns about love, cooking, and ghostly etiquette.

Bracing herself for two weeks of boredom with one of Mom’s long-lost friends, the quotation-collecting teen is charmed by inn owner Bubbles, delighted by the inn’s chef and culinary opportunities, astonished to find herself falling in love with Bubbles’ son George – and welcomed by one ghost while being attacked by another!

What unfinished business is keeping Blue and Starla moored to their death site?
Why can Penny see the ghosts when it’s her single mom who tries to film them?
And why hasn’t Mom ever mentioned Bubbles in all the times that she’s left Penny with an acquaintance while she ghost-hunts?

Spend a snow-bound Christmas at The Black Butterfly Inn for mystery, love, revenge, memories, and gourmet hot chocolate. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Red Madness, by Gail Jarrow (book review) – medical mystery & modern food science

Jan15

book cover of Red Madness by Gail Jarrow published by Calkins CreekPellagra…
a disease brought on by poverty?
bad sanitation? poor nutrition?

Wait! When was the last time you heard of anyone suffering from its bright red rashes, impaired digestive system, delirious visions, and death?

Thanks to the doctors who wouldn’t quit searching for answers, you probably never will!

Red Madness recounts the medical sleuthing involved and tells why pellagra is listed as an inactive disease in today’s USA.
Thankfully, all the historic photos are in black and white.

**kmm

Book info: Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat / Gail Jarrow. Calkins Creek, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Baffled by a Europe-only disease appearing in the southern USA before World War I, scientists and doctors raced to find the cause of pellagra which led to insanity and death.

Some blamed the disease on moldy corn or sugarcane products, others stated that only poor people in squalor contracted pellagra. When a well-to-do Atlanta woman died of its painful red rashes, weight loss, and delirium under none of these conditions, US doctors and researchers began having conferences to stop this deadly killer. Was it contagious? Was it dietary?

Red Madness shares case histories and photographs of pellagra sufferers in the early 20th century and chronicles the medical detective work of Babcock, Goldberger, and others who devoted countless hours of observation and research to conquering this fatal disease.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Book of Broken Hearts, by Sarah Ockler (book review) – memory is fickle; is love any different?

Jan6

book cover of Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler published by Simon PulseEl Demonio stealing Papi’s memories,
Family duty stealing Jude’s theater dreams,
Memories stealing Emilio’s happiness.
Can thieves be banished by hard work  – and love?

Jude is sure that Papi’s memory bank will refill if he can just ride once more on the Harley that took him up the Argentine mountains  read more here

Pills and Starships, by Lydia Millet (book review) – climate change, drugs, and lies

Jan3

book cover of Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet published by Akashic BooksToo sad to keep on living in a climate chaotic world,
her parents have chosen their time to die…
or is it the pharma talking?

Nat’s mom and dad – former environmental activists – could have waited just a few more years to invoke the Service Contract ending their lives, till the teen and her younger brother moved out as workers – why now?

In this too-possible dystopia, global warming has changed weather patterns, babies are now illegal, and new diseases mutating weekly make face-to-face contact rare.

Ask for Nat’s story at your local library or independent bookstore to see if she can find a way to keep her family together once she discovers the truths that pharma-corps are trying to hide. (I loved the book, but its title… not so much)

**kmm

Book info: Pills and Starships / Lydia Millet. Black Sheep/Akashic Books, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [author interview on NPR]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Preparing to honor her parents’ final week of life, Nat learns that big money uses pharma to trick the few remaining Americans into thinking that global warming has eliminated the entire natural world.

At a tropical resort devoted to final Contracts, the teen and her hackerkid brother discover real plants and animals and people who think for themselves.  Are pharma-corporations really lying to the public about imminent doomsday?

Her decision about joining the rebels must come soon, as her parents’ date with a lethal farewell drink in mere days will leave Nat and Sam in a group survivors’ home in Oregon – are her parents really sad enough about the state of the world to leave it forever?

When a mega-hurricane hurtles toward Hawai’i, will it be too late to rescue her not-old parents and not-old-enough brother?

Addressed to an imagined friend safely orbiting this climate-chaos world, Nat reflects in the Contract-provided mourning journal about Starships and Pills  and her unexpected opportunity to escape pharma-managed life… if she can. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

The Lost, by Sarah Beth Durst (book review) – lost her way & her self, forever?

Dec30

book cover of The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst published by Harlequin MiraBreaking out of her normal drive to work, speeding through the desert, away from cancer specialists and Mom’s insistence that everything is fine.

“Unfortunately, I seem to have packed all my emotional baggage for this impromptu road trip,” to where? Click to read more

Get Happy, by Mary Amato (book review) – wanted: uke, dad, happiness

Dec4

book cover of Get Happy by Mary Amato published by EgmontTeen songwriter wants an ukulele and better days.
Teen’s long-gone dad wants to see her at last.
Teen’s hyper-organized mom wants him to stay gone.

As the Rolling Stones sang, “You can’t always get what you want,” but be assured that the teens eventually do get what they need, even if they don’t know what it is Read on, read on!

Author, author! Meeting a favorite writer in person!

Nov14
photo of Terra McVoy & Katy Manck (c)Katy Manck

Terra & Katy at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia!

Look!
It’s her,
it’s really her!

So cool to finally meet Terra Elan McVoy in person at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia yesterday!

Terra is a bookseller, author, and generally all-around fun gal – be sure to read her novels set in the Atlanta area: After the Kiss (an early BooksYALove recommendation), Being Friends With Boys  (my notes here), and Criminal  (my review here).

I have her most-recent book In Deep on my nightstand right now, but just cannot force myself to turn the page – I don’t want Brenn to make that bad decision!! (But Terra said that we know she’ll do it)

Have you met an author in person lately?
**kmm

Soul still here? Meet Me at the River, by Nina de Gramont (book review)

Nov8

book cover of Meet Me at the River by Nina de Gramont published by Atheneum Books for Young ReadersMoving past grief means leaving Luke behind.
Tressa just can’t do that,
but she can’t find peace among the living either. read my recommendation