#tbt: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Image: Penguin Random House

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. 224 p. Alfred A. Knopf/ Random House Children's Books, September, 2003. 

I highlight LGBTQIA+ titles throughout the year, but June is Pride Month, so I will try to be a bit more intentional in the Daily Book Talks. #tbt features Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. This exuberant romance turns the romantic trope of "boy meets girl" on its head in the most delightful ways.

Our narrator, Paul, is an openly gay sophomore who is lucky enough to live in a gay-friendly town in New Jersey where the star quarterback on the football team, Infinite Darlene, is also homecoming queen. When Noah moves to town, Paul is instantly smitten, but Noah is cautious, having recently broken up with a cheating boyfriend.

Boy Meets Boy was published in 2003. It received the Lamda Literary Award for Children/ Young Adults and regularly appears on lists of best LGBTQIA+ books for young readers. David Levithan has written quite a few books, including Every Day, which was adapted for film.

Waiting on Wednesday: Clash by Kayla Miller

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Clash by Kayla Miller. 224 p. Click series #4. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, July 20, 2021. 9780358242192.

Waiting on Wednesday features Clash by Kayla Miller. This is book four of the Click series, which is quite popular at my school. 

Publisher synopsis: Olive, meet Natasha.

There’s a new kid in town! From the moment Natasha sets foot in class, it’s clear she’s one of the coolest kids in sixth grade. Everyone wants to be her friend, including Olive . . . but things might not be so easy.

Olive tries her best to befriend Nat, but it seems like the only thing they have in common is that they both want to hang out with Olive’s friends! Watching as Natasha gets closer with some of her best buds, Olive can’t help but worry that they’re starting to like Nat more than they like her . . . and who could blame them? Nat is just that cool . . . and Olive is, well, just Olive.

The New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Kayla Miller delivers a nuanced look at navigating middle school friendships and the importance of both empathy and respect.

Review: Franklin Endicott and the Third Key by Kate DiCamillo

Image: Candlewick Press

Franklin Endicott and the Third Key by Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. Tales from Deckawoo Drive series. 104 p. Candlewick Press, June 8, 2021. 9781536201819. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Franklin Endicott of Deckawoo Drive is a worrier, but not just a garden variety worrier. He keeps lists of his worries, then alphabetizes them. His list is long and, on top of that, he suffers from vivid nightmares. He finds some comfort visiting the Lincoln sisters. They have a wonderful set of encyclopedias that he is welcome to use anytime. 

One day, he accompanies Eugenia Lincoln to Odd Buddy Lamp's thrift store to get a key duplicated. Eugenia leaves Franklin in the store to wait while she finishes her errands. Franklin is quite disturbed by the menacing and eclectic items for sale. Items like a bug stuck forever in amber were unsettling enough, but the stuffed weasel and jar of eyeballs just sent Franklin right over the edge of anxiety, not to mention that Odd Buddy Lamp himself was just, odd! When Franklin discovers a third key in Miss Lincoln's envelop, she sends him back to the thrift store ALONE to find out why. 

I can't prove this, but I'd like to think I could spot something written by Kate DiCamillo were I handed a manuscript blind. She takes such care with her characters and often speaks to the heart of childhood wants and worries. Franklin is so endearing, made more so by Chris Van Dusen's illustrations.

I especially loved that Buddy gifts Franklin a book of short stories and was tickled that the book included the story, Eleven, a story that we read with our sixth graders this year. It really is quite amazing what Ms. DiCamillo manages to accomplish in just over one hundred pages. 

I've been out of the elementary scene for quite a while and so, lost track of Mercy Watson and her spin-offs. Franklin Endicott and the Third Key is volume six of the Tales from Deckwoo Drive series and I promised myself to read volumes one through five. Franklin Endicott and the Third Key releases next Tuesday, June 8. 

Teen Tuesday: The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Image: Disney Books

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert. 304 p. July, 2020. 9781368053297. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a restful, reflective Memorial Day Weekend. Teen Tuesday features The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert. It's Election Day and eighteen-year-old Marva can't wait to vote. In fact, she's first in line to cast her very first ballot. She's been politically active for awhile working to register people to vote and feels passionate about the electoral process, which is why she's utterly dismayed by her white boyfriend's decision not to vote.

Further back in line is Duke, also voting for the first time. He just wants to get it over with, head to school, take his calculus test, then focus on the evening, when his band will play their first paying gig. Only, when Duke gets to the front of the line, he learns he's not registered to vote at that polling place. Marva overhears this and intervenes. Duke's surprised and intrigued by this intense stranger and accepts her offer of a ride back to his old neighborhood to vote. Only, he's not registered there either and Marva learns that her IG-famous cat, Eartha Kitty, aka Selma, has gone missing.

This smart romance is told from the alternating points of view of Marva and Duke. They are two whip-smart, socially aware Black teens who get to know each other over the course of an eventful election day. Relevant issues from race relations to voter suppression have been skillfully woven into an entertaining romance. I just loved this to bits.

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. Read by Imani Parks. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~11 hours. HarperAudio/ Balzer+Bray/ HarperCollins Publishers, January, 2021. 9780063057968.

Middle Grade Monday features Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. This fantasy series starter is the author's debut and getting a lot of well-deserved Newbery buzz.

Thirteen-year-old Amari Peters has had it. She's a scholarship student at a fancy prep school and hates it. She's not as smart as her perfect older brother, Quinton, and is bullied relentlessly for being a scholarship student as well as the fact that her brother is missing-implying he was into drugs. Amari and her single-mom don't believe that for a second, but even the police have stopped investigating his disappearance. Now, she's facing expulsion for fighting and grounded as well. Then, she receives a mysterious package containing a message from her brother.

She learns that he was working for the Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and was one of their top agents. He and his partner were working on a case and disappeared. The message was to be delivered to Amari should something happen to him, but Amari refuses to believe that he's dead. He has recommended her to attend summer camp at the bureau. She wants to attend so that she can investigate Quinton's disappearance herself. Once there, she discovers that she has a magical power-only it's illegal.

Normal-kid-who-discovers-they-are-magical is a trope that has been done before, but this one feels fresh. It's fast-paced, suspenseful, twisty and narrated by gritty, gutsy Amari, whom readers will instantly root for. The world-building is excellent. The diverse cast of characters are all intriguing and the mystery is excellently constructed, with plenty of suspects and red herrings. I can't wait for the next installment of the Supernatural Investigations series.

I will be reading that book with my eyes however. I found the narration uneven, with odd pauses that distracted from the enjoyment of the story. 

What's New?

 "Stacking the Shelves" is was a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It seems the blog is gone though, for the link no longer takes you to it. So, I will just continue to post a "What's New? post whenever I receive new books. 

For Review:

Candlewick Press

Revolution in Our Time: the Black Panther Party's Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon. 400 p. Candlewick Press, September, 2021. 9781536223422.

Publisher synopsis: In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers’ history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice.

With passion and precision, Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.

I really enjoy Ms. Magoon's MG and YA fiction and am super-excited to read her first (?) foray into nonfiction.

Purchased: nothing!

What was in your mailbox this week?

Fact Friday: A Somber Centennial: Tulsa Race Massacre

May 31 to June 1 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Like many white Americans, I did not learn of the Tulsa Race Massacre until reference was made to it by Kimberly Jones in this video uploaded last year. I looked it up and was horrified-first that it happened and then because the event was basically erased. 

Image: Lerner Publishing

I reviewed Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre, a picture book aimed at older readers to explain the tragedy here and was privileged to attend several virtual meetings featuring the author. Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper did something extraordinary here and this book belongs in all schools. 

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

A short while ago, I got to listen to Brandy Colbert talk about her nonfiction book, Black Birds in the Sky: the Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and that book immediately got added to my next book order for the library. It's due out in October. 

New to me titles I will be adding are:

Image: Macmillan

The Burning: Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Masacre of 1921, adapted by Hilary Beard from Tim Madigan’s 2001 account for adult readers.

Image: Abrams

Across the Tracks: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre and Black Wall Street written by Alverne Ball and illustrated by Stacey Robinson is a nonfiction graphic novel.