Fact Friday: The Distance Between Us (Young Readers Edition) by Reyna Grande

Image: Simon & Schuster

The Distance Between Us (Young Readers Edition) by Reyna Grande. 336 p. Aladdin/ Simon & Schuster, September, 2017. 9781481463706. (Own.)

Happy Friday! What are your plans for the weekend? Hopefully, books are in the mix. Fact Friday features The Distance Between Us (Young Readers Edition) by Reyna Grande. The author's memoir, originally written for adults was adapted for young people, but is still a tough, intense read, though there are moments of levity. Ms. Grande's parents left her and her siblings with a stern grandmother in southern Mexico in order to cross the border for a chance at a better life. Her parents' marriage collapsed, plans fell through and Ms. Grande was preparing for her own dangerous border crossing to live with a father she barely remembered.

#tbt: Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez

Happy Thursday! #tbt features Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez. This first-person historical fiction is set in the Dominican Republic in 1961. Twelve-year-old Anita lives a protected life within a compound with her large extended family. The country is ruled by a dictator, but Anita naively looks up to him. Then, whispers among the adults start and family members start disappearing-some for the U.S. and others mysteriously. Then Anita's tio and father are arrested and Anita and her mother have to hide in a closet at a friend's house before being spirited out of the country.

Before We Were Free was published in 2004 and won the Pura Belpré Award. The cover was updated in 2018. I have posted it below. which one do you prefer?

Image: Penguin Random House

Teen Tuesday a Day Late: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. 384 p. Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins Publishers, March, 2018.

Happy Tuesday (on a Wednesday)! I posted this to my school's platform yesterday, but forgot the blog. Teen Tuesday features The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. Ms. Acevedo was teaching eighth grade language arts in Maryland and was trying to get her students to love reading. The school was almost 80% Latinx and 20% black, but she was the first Latinx teacher of a core subject. She asked her students why they didn't like to read and was told it was because there were no black and brown characters in the books they were given. She wrote The Poet X for her students.

It is the first-person story of Xiomara Batista, a sophomore at a Harlem High School. She's angry and pours her anger into her poetry journal. She's angry about the double-standard that is applied to her and her twin brother. He gets freedom, but her mother has her practically on lockdown, sure that X is going to get into trouble. She's large and curvy and she's angry about the unwanted comments thrown at her about her body.

This coming-of-age story is intense and beautifully written in verse. Ms. Acevedo's YA debut was published in 2018 and made quite a splash! It won the National Book Award, the Printz Award and the Pura Belpré Award. The audiobook, which was performed by the author, won an Odyssey Award and is well worth a listen.

Waiting on Wednesday: Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera

Happy Wednesday? I just opened Blogger to copy and paste this post from my school's platform where I crosspost the Daily Book Talks and saw that I failed to post Teen Tuesday here! That does not surprise me. Yesterday was hard. For the last ten years, this whole week has been hard for me and my family, but this year has two additional reasons for sadness.

October 3 marked four months from when my husband had his massive stroke, one that left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak. October 5 marked two months from the day he died, exactly nine weeks later. It was also my mother's birthday. She would've been 87. October 9 marks the eighth anniversary of my sister, Liza's death. She died at age 55 awaiting a lung transplant while I was undergoing breast cancer treatment. I got to live and I miss her nearly every day. 

I am trying to be patient with myself and my grief, but it's still quite raw and made more raw but the old grief of missing my mom and closest sibling. Being back at school helps distract me and get me moving, but I'm definitely not the teacher I was a year ago. I'm fine interacting with the kids, but grading? or posting lesson plans? or attending to meeting topics? It's all very hard. My ability to concentrate is shot. Often, I get stuck - just sitting with absolutely no idea how to move forward. Nothing for it but to push through and try not to whine too much. I miss him so much, but now I'm starting to miss me.

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera. 480 p. Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins Publishers, December 28, 2021. 9780063071636.

Waiting on Wednesday features Here's to Us by Becky Albertali and Adam Silvera. This is a sequel to the pair's 2018 parallel narrative, What If It's Us? Here's the publisher's synopsis: 

Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera reunite to continue the story of Arthur and Ben, the boys readers first fell for in the New York Times bestselling rom-com What If It’s Us.

Ben survived freshman year of college, but he’s feeling more stuck than ever. His classes are a slog, his part-time job working with his father is even worse, and his best friend Dylan’s been acting weird for weeks. Ben’s only real bright spot is his writing partner Mario, who’s been giving him a lot of Spanish lessons and even more kisses. Mario’s big Hollywood dreams make Ben start to dream bigger—and the choices he makes now could be the key to reshaping his future. So why can’t he stop thinking about a certain boy from his past?

Arthur is back in New York City for the first time in two years, ready to take the theater world by a storm as the world’s best . . . intern to the assistant of an off-off-Broadway director. Of course, it sucks to be spending the summer apart from his sweet, reliable boyfriend, Mikey, but he knows their relationship is strong enough to weather the distance. Which is why it’s no big deal when his ex-boyfriend Ben stumbles back into the picture. And it’s definitely fine that Ben’s blissfully happy with some mystery boy. First loves are special, but it’s way too late for what-ifs. Right?
Even as the boys try to shake off the past, they keep running into each other in the present. Is this the universe trying to tell them there’s a do-over in their future?

Here's to Us releases on December 28. That leaves plenty of time to borrow the first book and get to know Ben and Arthur.

Middle Grade Monday: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

Image: Disney Books

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. 400 p. Rick Riordan Presents/ Disney Books, March, 2019. 

Happy Monday! I'm sorry my students' Monday is a rainy one. They have off so that we teachers can have a professional day. Hopefully, they have some great books to curl up with. 

Middle Grade Monday features Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. This sci-fi adventure was Mr. Hernandez's debut and published in 2019. It won the 2020 Pura Belpré Award as well.

Thirteen-year-old Sal Vidón has diabetes and is an aspiring magician who also has the ability to reach into the space-time continuum and bring back objects and people, most notably, his dead mother, who is not dead in other universes. He also likes to play pranks, which is not endearing him to the teachers at his new school, nor Gabi Réal, student council president and reporter for the school newspaper. She aims to prove it was Sal who put the bloody chicken in her friend's locker.

This fast-paced adventure is laugh-out-loud funny, but there are moments of touching poignancy that deepen the connection to these two characters.

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe is book one of a planned series. Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe was published in 2020. 

What's New?

"Stacking the Shelves" was a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It seems the blog is gone though, so I will just continue to post a "What's New?" post whenever I receive or purchase new books. 

For Review: 

Image: Simon & Schuster

Susie B. Won't Back Down by Margaret Finnegan. 264 p. Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster, October 5, 2021. 9781534498631.

Publisher synopsis: Roll with It meets Absolutely Normal Chaos in this funny, big-hearted novel about a young girl’s campaign for student council president, told through letters to her hero Susan B. Anthony.

Susie B. has a lot to say. Like how it’s not fair that she has to be called Susie B. instead of plain Susie. Or about how polar bears are endangered. Or how the Usual Geniuses are always getting picked for cool stuff over the kids like her with butterflies in their brain. And it’s because Susie B. has a lot to say about these very important things that she’s running for student council president!

If she’s president, she can advocate for the underdogs just like her hero and fellow Susie B., Susan B. Anthony. (And, okay, maybe the chance to give big speeches to the whole school with a microphone is another perk.) But when the most usual of Usual Geniuses also enters the student council race, Susie realizes this may be a harder won fight than she thought. Even worse, Susie discovers that Susan B. Anthony wasn’t as great as history makes it seem, and she did some pretty terrible things to try to help her own cause. Soon, Susie has her own tough decisions to make. But one thing is for sure—no matter what, Susie B. won’t back down.

Purchased:

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Clues to the Universe by Christina Li. Unabridged audiobook on 6 CDs. ~6.5 hours. Read by Mimi Chang and Josh Hurley. HarperAudio, January, 2021. 9780063008912.

Publisher synopsis: This stellar debut about losing and finding family, forging unlikely friendships, and searching for answers to big questions will resonate with fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead.

The only thing Rosalind Ling Geraghty loves more than watching NASA launches with her dad is building rockets with him. When he dies unexpectedly, all Ro has left of him is an unfinished model rocket they had been working on together.

Benjamin Burns doesn’t like science, but he can’t get enough of Spacebound, a popular comic book series. When he finds a sketch that suggests that his dad created the comics, he’s thrilled. Too bad his dad walked out years ago, and Benji has no way to contact him.

Though Ro and Benji were only supposed to be science class partners, the pair become unlikely friends, and Ro even figures out a way to reunite Benji and his dad. But Benji hesitates, which infuriates Ro. Doesn’t he realize how much Ro wishes she could be in his place?

As the two face bullying, grief, and their own differences, Benji and Ro try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.

What was in your mailbox this week? 

Fact Friday: Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano. 272 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., 2015. 9780545621847. (Own)

Happy Friday! The temperature plummeted last night to the high 40s. Brr!

Fact Friday features Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano. After making a splash with her middle grade debut in 2013, Ms. Manzano, aka Maria from Sesame Street, wrote a memoir of her life growing up in the South Bronx, which published in 2015 for young adults. 

She grew up with immigrant parents who worked hard, but the family lived in poverty and her father was an abusive alcoholic. Her resilience paid off when she was accepted to the High School of Performing Arts and later won admission and scholarships to Carnegie-Mellon University.

This vivid memoir brims with intensity, energy and a strong sense of self and place.