Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Squad was part of my holiday gift exchange last year. I was tempted to sink my teeth into it right away, but things just got in the way. I started it about a week or so ago, and while I cannot say it is the first graphic novel that took me that long (or longer) to read, it was one that really took some time. This is not necessarily because it was OMG SO GOOD! Or even “deep and thoughtful” but because it is paced […]
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
One of my friends brought Kitchen back from her study-abroad to Japan in the mid 00s. I was woefully non-diverse in my reading at the time, so my first read of this book in 2008 was mostly vague and unaware. It left no impression. I didn’t even remember I owned it until re-shelving a bunch of books from packing boxes this spring. An MFA and six years of CBR diverse reading under my belt later, this read was a vastly different experience, the most striking of […]
The Loud House Special: Love Out Loud by Loud House Creative Team
Love is for Roaring by Mike Kerr
This review has a love theme. First, we have the graphic novel The Loud House Special: Love Out Loud by the Loud House Creative Team and second, the picture book Love is for Roaring by Mike Kerr. With the Loud Family we see the Loud Family and the way love is represented: between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, girlfriends and girlfriends, between siblings, between animals and their human and even between the youngest Loud child and her love of a certain large fuzzy “man.” […]
Deerskin by Robin McKinley
Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. […]
The Little Forest Keepers by Mary Lundquist,
Look at the cover of the picture book, The Little Forest Keepers by Mary Lundquist, and you really get all you need to know about what you will find inside. It is old fashioned, with cute, pastel colors. You know that there will be a sweet story about love, friendship, caring, coming together. And that is all true. However, there is a bit more to Lundquist’s book. It is the journey of our main characters, Ash and Pudd. They, of course, take care of their […]
Possession by A.S. Byatt
…and it’s been sitting in my own collection for a good decade or so? How did I keep stepping around this one? This book was written for me- or at least the me of ten years ago. DEFINITLEY the me of twenty years ago. 14-year-old-me would have swooned myself into an early grave with this one! A youngish academic is sinking further and further into classic British gloom. He’s in a dead relationship, putting in time in a dead-end job, researching crumbs on a long-dead […]
