Kate Mester

My shelf listing is a lie, it's not really read, I still haven't finished. I've tried for 2 years and can't make this book work for me. The writing is gorgeous and lush and heartbreaking and the story is interesting. It's not the book, it's me. I loved I Am the Messenger....does that help? I'm feeling a lot of bookshame, here. I'm sorry, Leisel. It's me, not you.

I think this will be a really entertaining book for teens that enjoy fantasy and mythology or tall-tales. It's not as much about baseball as about the fantasy land Chabon creates and the relationship of father and son. I've had a few students read it that really enjoyed it as well. I'm glad Chabon is doing stories for teens as well!

Not as good as the first book, but the ending should satisfy readers. However, the time it took to get there was looooong and Emika really lacked agency in the solutions. There were some of the characters that you cared about in the first book, but to a much smaller degree, as this book mainly focuses on Emika/Hideo/Zero.

Robert Petkoff slays this audio, especially the insanely funny first half (I had to keep repeating parts to play them for Liz because they were so funny) and all the various side character voices. A thoughtful and surprisingly charming tale considering it's about the zombification and extinction of humankind. A unique and delightfully weird way to read about caring for each other, animals, and our environment. Good book to end 2019!

Enjoying the escape of the audiobooks. This volume was markedly better than the second. Made me want to finish the series.

Enjoyed the Biltmore details. Other than that, fairly standard middle grade supernatural fantasy. Plodded along at points, especially in the cave scenes which were meant to be climactic.d

I'll continue to buy this for my collection and promote it (especially with the movie coming soon, which looks amazing!) but this felt even more confused than the first volume and I don't feel compelled to read any more of the story.

I learned so much from this book and annoyed everyone around me because I couldn't stop talking about it. Radden Keefe continues to impress with his exhaustively researched and compellingly readable style. I barely knew anything about the Sackler family themselves (by their own design, I now know) but by the end, you will conclude, as Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, said to David & Kathe Sackler in Congressional testimony: “Watching you testify makes my blood boil. I'm not aware of any family in America that is more evil than yours.”

Understand the award love for this book (and the slight controversy surrounding the title), but wished the book had more robust text, especially as this story is going to be unknown by almost all readers.

Agreed that this is an important book, but also an overly simple book lacking in plot and movement. However, there are plenty of kids who could benefit from feeling Melissa's joy in being herself and her freedom in her friendship with Kelly

Sweet, but I think many Henkes feel like they're more for the adults reading than the kids listening.

Loved the art and the honest and thoughtful self exploration, particularly as it shows it takes time, space, and learning to fully realize lots of pieces of yourself. A must for HS & public collections, this will be so validating for many readers.

I've always meant to read the book, but started with graphic novel. I liked the color story and vividness of the art but didn't really like the style. The story is a real gutpunch, which I was expecting, but combined with the images was truly visceral. Opinion may change once I've read the original, but this seems a well done rendering.

Whew! Definitely getting a few copies of this for the library and am saving a few poems that I'll recommend to teachers in parallel with novels, Bullet Points in particular. His creation of the duplex form is genius and just super cool. Brown is a force I need to read more from.

Maybe a 2.5. Abbi does the narration, so it feels even more stream of conscious as you're listening, which was both great and awful. Some fun tidbits about Ilana and Broad City and some funny and poignant stories, but mostly lists of anxiety driven what-ifs that don't make for good reading/listening. Haven't seen her drawings but do want to look at the book for those. 2.5/5.5 hours of an interesting listen.

WOW. I'm grateful to Patrisse for so openly sharing her life story. It's a must listen (she narraters the audio), especially if you're unfamiliar with or looking for more insight into the police state, the BLM movement and its inception, and the treatment of prisoners, especially those with mental illness. She spares nothing, the writing is excellent, and she gives data/statistics to show that her own familial experiences with poverty and incarceration are horrifyingly common.

Listen over reading, as Lindy herself reads the audio. She's hilarious and whipsmart and fighting all the right fights.

Appreciated sharing in his story and his honesty and vulnerability around how churches treat black queer people and how he sought to change that mentality in himself and then others. His families love was a great through line, but I wish the narrative was arranged either linearly or by themes rather than jumping around in time. I would have like some more in depth examining of how his self-learning informed and then changed his work and his relationships, but maybe that's for a future book. Recommended read, good pairing with Michael Eric Dyson's Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching and Patrice Khan-Cullors When They Call You a Terrorist.

Appreciated the Preface more than the play itself. Preface was nuanced and thoughtful but I thought the play dialogue was too clunky and on-the-nose. Wish I could view the play, seeing it might make it seem more nuanced. Worth the read as a discussion starter with other readers/book clubs/groups

Phew, I had lots of rage reading this. Well researched and with a strong argument. Chapter 4 on the Reagan years is particularly damning and shows how the current political discourse is (horrifyingly) still the same.

Enjoyed the meta teen trope intros as the frame for the characters, they were always good for a knowing nod or chuckle. Really liked the exploration of gray areas in feelings and friendships. Ness's characters feel more like true teen thinking, not adults-as-teens, which can happen a lot in YA

The illustrations and coloring are lush and compelling. The story is interesting and gives insight into Métis history. Each volume is very short and ties into the next. The back gives a timeline of the history, source notes, and some biographical information of main figures. I'd like more of an explanation of how some of the symbols that Echo wears and show up in the classroom are tied to the story/culture, but overall really well done. These volumes should definitely be in every middle and high school collection.

4.5 Really loved this book. Minus a half star for some plot conveniences and the over use of a phrase that drives me batty (character x let out a breath they didn't even realize they'd been holding) but those are quibbles. The characters seem to live outside the page, the story is so tender, and the resolutions had me teary, Joaq's storyline in particular. I had to pull over for that one because the audio got me hard.

A really impressive debut and a quick but recommended read! The Finklestein 5 was stunning - I'm definitely sharing with my ELA classes and hope to get this in front of students for discussion - so much to unpack and study here. Same with Zimmerland - so much to grapple with. I liked the zombie consumerism theme of Friday Black and the 2 other retail stories taking place in that world. Not all of the works were as strong, but I found myself thinking about them frequently and wanting to discuss them with other readers. The last story is the most graphically violent, though it made sense to the story it's certainly stomach-turning.

Love Gabby Rivera and am looking to keep growing our graphic section, but this was a bit of a mess. A fun mess, though. Threads kind of went nowhere and none of them wove together into one throughline arc. Haven't read any Young Avengers so this was my first intro to character. She's kinda cool.