![]() It’s Not Like It’s a Secret is a young adult novel by Misa Sugiura. The book is about Sana, a Japanese American sixteen year old girl with a lot of secrets that she hides in a small lacquer box. Even though some of her secrets are really obvious she has a lot of trouble acknowledging and facing them. Everything changes when suddenly her dad moves her family across the country from Wisconsin to California, sort of confirming the secret that hangs over her family. In California, she finds it difficult to continue keeping all of her secrets to herself when her dad begins to not come home most nights and when she catches feelings for one of the best runners on the girl’s track team at her new school. I read It’s Not Like It’s a Secret because I saw it on a shelf at Barnes & Nobles and I thought that it sounded like a really interesting when I read the description. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop because Sana’s character is really relatable and well written. It has a good storyline and it was never boring. One of my favorite things about this book was how the author used poetry to help tell the story. It really helped to show how the different characters felt about what was going on in the story. Overall, this is a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes realistic fiction books that have happy endings. -EPM, grade 10
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![]() We Say #NEVERAGAIN is a first hand account of the horrific school shooting at Marjoury Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. We Say #NEVERAGAIN describes not only the day of the shooting from the perspective of different students, but also shares deep insights on the beggining of the #NEVERAGAIN movement. As we learn different aspects of the shooting itself and the affects on others in each chapter, we learn about the different impacts the students of Parkland are making in journalism and activism. We Say #NEVERAGAIN is written by the Parkland Student Journalists and tells the story of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a personal voice that is not only interesting, but fascinating and important. I first saw this book at Target one day after I attended a panel with Parkland students held at the Neutral Zone entitled “Honoring Parkland and Chicago Youth”. After attending this event I knew I wanted to get more involved in activism against gun violence. This book seemed like a good place to start and I’m very glad I read it because the different perspectives gave me a deeper understanding on the issue and motivated me to get more involved in this movement. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is silently interested in learning about the issues surrounding gun violence in different communities or anyone who is interested in journalism because the book talks a lot about ethical journalism. -CK, grade 10 ![]() Dear Evan Hansen is about a boy who struggles with anxiety and depression. He struggles socially, so his therapist gives him the assignment to write encouraging notes to himself every day. One day, Evan has a strange run-in with Connor Murphy, who struggles with similar issues, and Connor takes Evan’s note. That night Connor commits suicide. His parents find him with the note and mistakenly think that Connor wrote the note to Evan because they were friends. Evan gets caught up in a tangle of lies and becomes close with Connor’s family, especially his sister Zoe. He gains popularity as a result and starts a project to remember Connor and raise awareness about depression. Through this experience, Evan slowly gains confidence and his mental health starts to improve, but he also realizes he cannot continue to lie forever. Before reading this book, I had already listened to the music from the play, which came before the book, and I really liked it. Reading the book, I could see where the music come in, and some of the conversations were the same as song lyrics. I thought this was a good book and the topic is very interesting and important in today’s society, but I do think it is better suited to a play. Many of the scenes would be more entertaining acted out rather than described, especially the scenes with dialogue between Evan and the Murphy’s, Zoe, his mom, and his other classmates. I enjoyed the book, but I would love to see the play and I think I would like it even more. -SMS, grade 12 ![]() In the first fifty pages of this book, Starr and her friend Kahlil leave a party in their neighborhood, get pulled over by a white police officer who asks Kahlil to step out of the car, Kahlil goes to ask Starr if she is okay and the police office shoots Kahlil three times in the back. This book is about Starr Carter and the aftermath of her friend's death. She decides what to do with her witness testimony and how she can fight with her words. Everybody recommended this book to me. Several of my student book groups have read and raved about this book. It did not disappoint. Thomas' characters are relatable and dynamic. She addresses a multitude of social and cultural issues through a graceful and powerful narrator. I will see the movie adaptation soon and I can only hope it gets close to the original. ![]() Despite growing up in East Rockport, Texas, Vivian does not worship the football team or ignore when the boys at her school are offensive to girls. In fact, she is sick of being told, "Make me a sandwich," and she does not like the Bump'n'Grab game the boys play in the hallways. So she makes a zine and distributes a few in the girls' bathrooms to see if she is not alone. It turns out, she is not the only girl at East Rockport High who does not like the sexist culture, and she is not the only one who wants to do something about it. A student pitched this book to my English 10 class this fall and it sounded interesting but it did not get picked for a group. Then I saw it at the book store and figured it would be okay to get a copy for my classroom library. Reading this book was energizing. Mathieu addresses high school feminism in a very real way and her inclusion of Riot Grrrl was dreamy. ![]() This graphic novel autobiography depicts part of Marjane Satrapi's adolescence in Iran in the 1970s and 1980s. Iran was going through revolution and war at this time, but Marji was just a regular teen. She wants to buy jeans and Nikes, chat with her friends, and go to school. However, when her family and friends are imprisoned or killed by bombs, it is hard to be "normal." I have been hearing of this book for years, but just finally happened to pick it up at Dawn Treader. The graphics were excellent and really demanded my attention more than I have found with other graphic novels. Satrapi's story weaves in so many elements of adolescence, politics, war, family, and education that I enjoyed the feeling of learning about real things as I read. ![]() In this memoir, Ashley recounts some of the horrors and delights of her experience being separated from her mother, her time in foster care, and her adoption process almost ten years later. Parts of her story are sickening, like when she tells about the abuse of some of her foster parents. Other parts are heartwarming, like the love and from her grandfather's girlfriend, Adele. At the beginning, and really most of the middle, I did not like reading this book because of how sad the story is. Beyond just the events of Ashley's life, I take this memoir as a testimony of what foster care can be like, and it is not pretty. However, Rhodes-Courter is a success story and her novel is a triumph, so the last third of the book was gripping. ![]() Justyce McAllister is a top student at a boarding school in Atlanta, GA. He's on the debate team, has a few best friends, and is ready to get into an Ivy League university. But a few racially charged run-ins with the police leave him searching for answers. He begins the exercise of writing to MLK (Dear Martin) as he learns about and explores the race-based tensions between young black men and the white police officers he meets. A friend recommended this book to me and I was initially intrigued by the concept of writing letters to MLK as a way to seek understanding. That intrigue was then sustained by the engaging characters and (at times) nuanced discussion of racial politics in America today. |
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June 2020
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