Saturday, February 23, 2019

Dear Martin

Dear MartinDear Martin by Nic Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are many parallels between Dear Martin and The New Jim Crow, and having just finished TNJC I appreciated how Dear Martin presented a narrative with both heart and reality for a young adult audience. The audio is done extremely well, transitioning between the action of the plot and Justyce's letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he processes his feelings about his senior year and upcoming move to an Ivy League college, racism in academia, and racism in policing, specifically in relation to the War on Drugs.

I listened to the entire book in an afternoon, but the emotional intensity had me thinking about the story long after - Nic Stone is officially on my authors to watch list.


Extras: THUG, Black Superheroes, or View All My Reviews

Friday, February 22, 2019

Friday Night Links 43

A bit of what I've been reading (online, anyways) this past month:

My neighborhood finally has a library!

I'm saving this list of 50 + 11 YA nonfiction books for a rainy day. And this list of 46 books by women of color (from last year) to keep working on.

How many books can I read in a year? (A lot. How many can I read + enjoy (+ remember)? Not as many. Because I need sleep.)

I hope I can make an escape room happen at my library at some point.

Love this map of authors!

This online volunteering platform looks interesting.

Saturday, February 16, 2019

The New Jim Crow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book put into words (with researched evidence) so many things that I've thought and/or felt about the US prison system, the "War on Drugs," and how they're linked. Namely, that both are (and were created to be) discriminatory. Alexander shows with great detail and a clear narrative voice how slavery (legalized exploitation) became Jim Crow (legalized segregation) became mass incarceration (legalized marginalization), and how each institution was built to uphold white supremacy.

Because race can no longer legally be used to justify discrimination, it's not. Now, criminals are discriminated against. Blackness itself is criminalized, and specific policies allow this discrimination to legally continue. The "War on Drugs" is unfairly and overwhelmingly waged on Black men (Alexander notes that Black women and the Latinx population are also targeted, though her book doesn't go into as much detail on that data). These men are engaging in the same crimes that are ignored in middle/upper class and white communities, and once they are "in the system," so to speak, they are marginalized on every front: employment, housing, education, health, civic life.

I got into the work I'm in now specifically to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. I believe that more resources, more mental health professionals, and more positive, caring adults in young people's lives is part of the anti-racist work America needs to do. Less policing (less police), legalizing or decriminalizing drugs, and confronting (and then battling) ugly stereotypes is more of the work. I agree with Alexander when she writes: "As a society, our decision to heap shame and contempt upon those who struggle and fail in a system designed to keep them locked up and locked out says far more about ourselves than it does about them."

I'd pair this nonfiction read with Dear Martin (teen fiction) and a viewing of 13TH.

Extras: More Nonfiction or View All My Reviews.

Saturday, February 9, 2019

The Parker Inheritance

The Parker InheritanceThe Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This mystery-puzzler is both historical and socially conscious, and is engaging on a number of levels. Young Candice Miller is spending a summer in her grandmother's old house in Lambert, South Carolina while her mom works on her writing and her dad stays in Atlanta. She befriends Brandon Jones, a boy who lives across the street and shares Candice's love of reading, and together the two follow clues left in a letter Candice finds in her grandmother's attic. Candice and Brandon hope these clues will lead them to a treasure - an inheritance left by a mysterious citizen of Lambert - while readers learn how the inheritance came into existence through flashbacks centered on various figures in Lambert's history.

The Parker Inheritance is a solid middle grade read appropriate for any time of year, but it's especially appropriate for Black History Month. The historical flashbacks show what it meant to be Black in the South at various times, and how this history affects the present day - specifically for Candice and Brandon, who are both Black and experience racism and its effects throughout the course of the story. Several LGBTQ+ characters provide insight into the intersections of race and sexuality, and teaching moments are worked seamlessly into the action of the story. Young puzzlers who are visual learners may appreciate having a print copy of the book in order to see the clues, but I found the audio enjoyable and easy to listen to and I'd recommend it to those who prefer reading with their ears or in addition to following along with the print version.


Extras: More Historical Fiction, Technically Historical Fiction, Own Voices Contemporary Fiction, More Mysteries, or View All My Reviews

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Check, Please!: #Hockey

Check, Please!: #Hockey, Vol. 1Check, Please!: #Hockey, Vol. 1 by Ngozi Ukazu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this absolutely delightful gem of a web-comic-turned-graphic-novel! Bitty is such a fun protagonist, easy to love and to cheer for. Knowing Check, Please! started as a creative escape for Ukazu and ended up as a quickly successful Kickstarter makes it even more enjoyable. We have the original (and loyal) readers of the Check, Please! webcomic to thank for this book (and the upcoming sequel)!

The story follows Bitty (Eric Bittle), a new hockey recruit at Samwell University who loves baking (pie, mostly) and shares his thoughts via vlogs to his followers. Through his vlog, we learn about the rest of the hockey team (including Bitty's crush on Jack, the team captain), Bitty's school life, and how he fares out on the ice (not well - Bitty was originally a figure skater, and got on the hockey team thanks to a scholarship and a highlight reel of his skating).

What makes this graphic work so well, besides Bitty's absolute charm, are the relationships he forms with his hockey team, and their 100% accurate and hilarious personalities. The dialogue, the nonverbal language, every interaction is authentic while also being completely over-the-top. There's a lot to notice on each page, and it's easy to see how much thought Ukazu put into developing Bitty's story.


Extras: Middle Grades Graphics, Middle Grades and Teen Graphics, More LGBTQ Reads, or View All My Reviews