Kate Mester
Absolutely excellent. Beautifully written and illustrated, great use of primary sources and well-cited research.
Another great Tonatiuh. Knew calaveras but didn't know about Posada, which is the point. Great interplay of Tonatiuh's and Posada's art, informational how-tos on art making, and thoughtful questions for the reader.
Had to quit the audiobook, even with Bahni Turpin. 3 narrators do each of the 3 main characters, Bahni as Paris was amazing of course, and Kya was fine, but the narrator for Fuse gave line readings like she had never read a book in her life. She grouped the wrong words together, rendering anything from her unlistenable. How her line readings made it past an editor in a production with Bahni I can't fathom. The book itself was an interesting idea but could have been edited down by about 100 pages. The dark web fandom was an interesting idea that went cartoonish. Didn't find it as compelling or as zippy as Fake ID, though he built more complex characters here.
The villian here is really reaching and the voting part, while cool for teen audiences, felt a bit too didactic to be as fun as the rest of the series
Lots of history but definitely too dense for a light read and almost too dense for the graphic format, especially because the text was everywhere on the page, oftentimes without an order. I'd have given it an additional star if it was designed less chaotically.
Richly detailed world-building with believable characters and a good mystery. I haven't read any of the Bartimaeus books, so I loved my first real introduction to Stroud. I've recommended it to kids who can handle scary, because some of the ghost scenes are truly creepy.
4.5 Perfect on Paper is a sweet and smart romance with a nuanced bi main character and an awesome focus on consent culture and healthy relationship advice that feels organic and not preachy. Supporting characters are in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and a Queer and Questioning club is part of the plot, helping to answer questions for readers like aro/ace distinctions, etc. Parents are included in the story and are also given nuance and teens make realistic decisions. Strong recommend, this has wide appeal.
2.5 A few new ideas on how her powers work and some fun dialogue by guest authors (including Rainbow Rowell & Hasan Minhaj!) but felt mostly like filler.
Probably found it more depressing as an adult than as a teen, but overall I liked it.
The series picked up in 8 and felt more like the enjoyable Ms. M series. Liked the addition of a previous friend in new form, interested to see where that plot goes.
Interesting that she continues to tell Michaux's story to different age groups, but No Crystal Stair was the better telling.
3.5 The art was pretty gorgeous, especially the colors. Liked that the storyline shifted in time and the world building was interesting but not superlative. Nice that it was super queer but I was never fully invested in either he characters or the plot.
The graphic novel form of a queer teen (technically New Adult, as they're in college) romcom, so adorable and hopeful. This 2nd book is the end of the 2 part series and covers Bitty's junior and senior years and a window into his post-college life. I couldn't always tell all of the secondary characters apart and some of the shifts in time were confusing, but this series is so sweet and fun and uplifting. Includes a few additional examiner comics and Bitty's tweets that are all additive to the story.
3.5 I wanted to like this more than I did, especially because I've already given it to some kids and they LOVED it and wanted to talk about it. I agree there needs to be more bi/pan/queer representation, but I'm not sure this is the best version of that. Also, she pushed into some John Green territory of what adults think teens say vs what they actually say. Understood the 3 narrator piece but I would have liked to hear from all 3 characters at end, instead of just through Jupe's lens. It really felt like HER story, with the other 2 voices thrown in because an editor suggested it.
Good concept, just ok execution. I liked that all sorts of women were included, not just authors or “famous” women. The stories ranged from great (Libba Bray, always) to not really sure why it was included. It could have done with some better format editting. There was no explanation why women were grouped into the decades. I assume that decade was when they were born? It definitely was in need of some front matter for setup. Also, I was about 4 stories in a wishing that each women had something that said what she did as a profession or why she was included, when I realized that at the bottom left of the picture was a small blue box that gave that information. I mean, I look at books for a living and this was not obvious to me - for sure the intended audience might miss this! I liked the timeline facts of women's history, but they also seemed relatively randomly generated.
Like all Sheinkin books, I learned so much through a great story. Man really knows how to write captivating narrative nonfic for his MS target audience.
The title combines 2 of my favorite things, how could I not?! It's light and fun but repetitive in it's simplistic message and not particularly well written. Teens/adults who like drag and are looking for an easy read will enjoy
This memoir is certainly as weird as she is. She starts with the conceit that you're sitting on an airplane next to her hearing her story, but then only sticks to that for a little while. I enjoy her voice so I liked listening to the audio, but she added in lots of sound effects to go along with the conceit that were distracting. The book itself has great 90's zine style pictures, but overall she didn't edit this in any narrative way, despite having 3-4 editors thanked, so it veers everywhere and includes recipes and other ephemera. She also calls it self-mythologizing, which is true in that she doesn't analyze her choices or relationships, and tells stories about Louis C.K., Woody Alan, & Ryan Adams with no critical analysis, in fact directly stating that Woody and Soon-Yi are great together....so that's all pretty gross. She also comes across as pretty unlikable - rude to service workers, non-apologetic about accidents she caused, both using and then complaining about her fame - and whether that was intentional or not, or just part of the self-mythologizing, is anyone's guess.
“Hope is not magic, hope is work.” “If faith is our belief that our world will be better and hope our belief that it can be better, imagiination is what allows us to navigate between the two. to paint a picture of the future that we can touch, feel, bring into being.” Strongly recommend investing 3.5 of your hours (for the audibook, probably even shorter if you read it) to spend time with DeRay. He takes such complex ideas and makes them simple in an elegant way. Through his work he's honed his messages to get right to a topic's essense and then you'll want to sit and think and chew on them for a while. This was maybe the first audiobook I've listened to that I didn't speed up, because his natural talking rhythm is quick. I was also pausing throughout to take notes (for the mental chewing) on his many actionable ideas. He shares just enough of his personal story to enhance and humanize his message. Great especially in conversation with other memoirs of BLM activists.
Solid 3 1/2. Reading with an ELL group now and it's generating good discussion! Definitely elevated above a normal sports tale, and with Mal Peet I would expect nothing less. Like the figurative language (great for parsing) and ghost/environmental storyline. The other characters were pretty stock and could have been better developed, but the central story is a compelling one.
This last book fundamentally changes Binti but though there's lots of action and plot twists, it doesn't feel as urgent as the first two. I still feel very satisfied by the conclusion, the writing was excellent, and I'll continue to think about series and it's many layers for a long time.
I just love these books. The audio books are completely charming and make me laugh. This series ender finally solves Upstream Mother in a mostly satisfying way, though the treasure hunt was not their strangest mystery. I will miss spending time with this quirky, funny, distinctive characters, and that's not rhetorical!
2.5 The weakest Stork I've read. The plot is slower paced than it should be, but it does convincingly build, only to totally fizzle at the end. Sara isn't as convincing a character as Emiliano, and chatcters are usually Stork's strong point. Have a kid reading this now and one that just finished, so I'll look to kid opinion before I booktalk it.
