MAY 2018

SAVVY by Ingrid Law / YA / *** / Kindle
The Beaumont family has magic... not wizardly wave your wand magic but in their blood down-home Appalachian-feeling magic.  This magic or "savvy" appears in force when a member of the family turns 13, sometimes with catastrophic results.

Mississippi is about to turn 13. Her family is anxious wondering what her savvy will be. Will she be able to move earth like Grandpa, create storms like Fish or generate electricity like Rocket?

Right before her birthday, Mississippi's father is in a terrible car accident. While Mom is at the hospital the kids are left with a nosy but well-meaning neighbor who has no idea what catastrophe could be awaiting the neighborhood kids at an impromptu birthday party thrown on Mississippi's behalf.

What results is an unplanned stow-away on the bus of a salesman pedaling Bibles... a journey across the mid-west, and an adventure to find their way back home.

Did I love this one? Not as much as I thought I would.  The actions of the adults were just too implausible to me. However, I did enjoy the characters, the back-story, the verbal imagery, and the importance of family shared in the story.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle / A / **** / Hardback
I read this book as part of the Goodreads Challenge. I put it off until the end as I am not really a mystery reader. The idea of 900+ pages of mystery sounded like torture. But like so many of the Goodreads books I ended up reading, I LOVED this one.  The collection I read had several longer stories (about 100 pages each) and then TONS of shorter stories that were about 10-20 pages each. I enjoyed the shorter stories much more.  I can just see myself back in the 1890's avidly waiting for the next story to be published in "The Strand".


Ghost by Jason Reynolds / YA/ ***1/2 / Hardback
This is the story of an inner-city boy with some inborn talent but a lack of discipline, a running coach that works hard to not just make runners but good human beings, and friends who help you realize that while you can't outrun your past, you can come to peace with it. I liked this one.


Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds / YA / **** / Hardback

This is one of those books that I read it and went WHAT??? Then I made Emily read it.  And she went WHAT??? And then Nathan read it. And then Elissa read it.  And then we argued about it over the dinner table.
Seriously people - this is happiness to me.
The story itself is about gun violence.  Will's brother Shawn has just been gunned down on the street of their neighborhood.  According to the code of the streets, it is Will's job to exact revenge.  This book tells a completely intriguing story of what happens to Will on his way down to the street.
This book won a Newbery Honor medal in 2018.

Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger by Rob Reger / YA / ***1/2 / Audio
I picked up this book as part of the Rory Gilmore challenge. It wasn't until later that I realized I had the wrong book... this is actually book 2... but I am counting it anyway.
It is the story of a super smart but super strange girl named Emily.  This books tells of her adventures in a new town as she meets new people, finds new trouble, and plans the ultimate prank.  I got a kick out of this book.

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm / YA / ***1/2 / Audio
This Newbery Honor award had a lot of feel-good classic charm.  It tells the story of Penny - who lives with her widowed mother and her maternal grandparents in post WWII New Jersey.  She is also lucky enough to live by her deceasedfather's family ... which is very large, very close, and very Italian.  
It is just a sweet story of family and becoming and growing. 

After Tupac and D. Foster by Jacqueline Woodson / YA / *** 1/2 / Kindle
This is another Newbery Honor winner. It tells the story of three black pre-teens living in Queens in 1996 - the year that Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting. The story follows the three friends as they start to grow up, explore their independence, and figure out their place in the world. Woodson is a great writer of both race relations and inner-city life in that she reveals the hardships, the idiosyncrasies, the joys, and the hardships all through the eyes and lives of her characters.  This book has a very nostalgic feel that I enjoyed.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lei / YA / **** / Kindle
After reading a few chapters of this book I realized that I have read this book before. It tells of a family fleeing Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. They are eventually resettled in the mid-west where they must figure out a new life in a new country. The story is sweet but real, and always hopeful.  This is an excellent book.