Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake Reviewed by Alisun Meet Hazel Bly. Hazel watches her little sister Peach like a hawk, doesn’t like risk or danger, and carries a first aid kit with her wherever she goes. Hazel suffers from crippling anxiety and worry. This is made painfully clear in […]
Author: moreshelfawareness
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Meet Daunis Fontaine. Daunis is mixed race Ojibwe/White. She lives in Sault St. Marie, Michigan, has just finished high school, and has suffered the loss of a beloved uncle and her best friend, both deaths tied to meth addiction in her community. Her father was a hockey star from the Sugar Island Ojibwe reservation but […]
Sal & Gabi Break the Universe
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe By Carlos Hernandez Guest Review by Sally Castillo (Lewis & Clark MAT 2021-2022) Sal and Gabi Break the Universe starts with an ordinary “new kid at school” plot device. Sal Vidón, who recently moved to Miami from Connecticut, gets sent to the Principal’s office on his third day […]
Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki
Our Little Kitchen Written & Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki Reviewed by Alisun This delightful picturebook tells the story of a community kitchen. While it is not plot driven, it documents an afternoon preparing a delicious meal for a diverse and inclusive group of neighbors. With vegetables harvested from the community garden, the team of cooks […]
Harlem’s Little Blackbird
Written by Renée Watson Illustrated by Christian Robinson Reviewed by Una O’Donnell-King (LC MAT 2019-2020) I love biographical picture books so much, I use them in my classroom all the time and I am always looking for one that show diverse people and the change they made. Harlem’s Little Blackbird is the true story of […]
Between Us & Abuela: A Family Story from the Border
Written by Mitali Perkins Illustrated by Sara Palacios Reviewed by Allison Johnson Think of the last time you were reunited with a long, lost loved one. Had it been a few weeks or several years? Did you meet at a coffee shop or on a street corner? The circumstances don’t matter. To be reunited with […]
Are there “good” Thanksgiving books?
You want to know about Native people? Do you really want to know about us? Or do you just need/want us so you can ‘do your thing’ (celebrate Thanksgiving)? You want me to tell you what I do for Thanksgiving. I understand that, but I think it more important that you ask about (in my case) the Pueblo people. Who are we? Where are we? What are OUR celebrations? When are they? What are they about? Debbie Reece
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Parks
Linda Sue Park, the award winning author of A Single Shard, A Long Walk to Water, and Project Mulberry brings middle grade readers Prairie Lotus — a deeply moving work of historical fiction set on the colonized prairie in 1870. The resemblance to the Ingalls-Wilder series is not coincidental. In the back matter, Parks details […]