Visitations by Corey Egbert
Visitations by Corey Egbert is more of a rating of 3.5 than a pure 4 as there were areas I would have liked to have seen “more” of the story (I like that we don’t have a lot of “before divorce” (just enough to let you know what has happened) but seeing more of the Visitations (what their mother calls the time Corey and his sister, Sarah, have with their father) would be interesting. Afterall, this is part of the title. And I would have […]
The Courage Party: Helping Our Resilient Children Understand and Survive Sexual Assault by Joyce Brabner
TRIGGER WARNING (including but not limited to): talk of Sexual Assault on a minor; other sexual assaults; frank language A few weeks ago, I started a sad, but interesting, book. It’s about a child (Danielle) who was sexually assaulted by an older boy. But that’s just the start. Because her guardian, Joyce, has always been honest with her; told her how to act in situations, especially this one; she is able to fight and run off. And unlike many stories like this, our young […]
Thank You, Night by Dan McCauley
Thank You, Rain by Dan McCauley
B Is for Belonging by Shannon Anderson
Hello, Beech Tree! by Rasha Hamid
A while back I saw two online reader copies that had intriguing covers (or thumbnails of the cover as it was only a small image). I liked them, but figured I knew what they were about by judging the cover. Thank You, Night and Thank You, Rain looked like they would be nice father and child stories. One set at night and one set in/around a rainy day. And I was not wrong. (Yes, I read them eventually.) They had more to them than those […]
The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius
The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Marius Marcinkevičius, illustrated by Inga Dagilė and translated by Jura Avizienis is a clever telling of the Holocaust story via one child’s experiences. We follow a child from inside to the ghetto, to the day they leave and do not return. The mystical element might be assumed “real” and therefore, having a younger child missing the metaphor, but older readers/children and adults will appreciate it. The artwork is sparse, but creates a tone that allows the realism […]
Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe and Sarah Peitzmeier
I will start my review of Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding with I am a cisgender female who has never experienced the body dysmorphia the people interviewed in this book have experienced/are experiencing. I understand disliking one’s body and the emotional results that can create, as I have had my own issues with body love, but I cannot understand the depth that impact can take on one when it is not only not “right” by not only “looking wrong”, but also is the wrong gender […]
Mr. Pei's Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei by Julie Leung
Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei by Julie Leung and illustrated by Yifan Wu is a WOW! book. Not because it is the best book ever (though it is in the top 25 for 2024 so far), but because it is different from what I have been reading and it is about someone that I had never heard of before, or if I had, not someone who had “clicked” as he was not a mainstream name (such as Frank Lloyd […]
