Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes. Illustrated by Dawn Anybwile

Image: Norton Young Readers

Waiting on Wednesday features a graphic novel memoir called Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes. Illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile. Mr. Anyabwile is fast becoming one of my favorite graphic novel artists. He illustrated Kwame Alexander's The Crossover. Mr. Barnes won a Newbery Honor for his debut picture book, Crown: Ode to a Fresh Cut. He collaborated with Mr. Smith on this memoir. It will be published on September 27 (my birthday!). 

Here's the publisher synopsis: A groundbreaking and timely graphic memoir from one of the most iconic figures in American sports—and a tribute to his fight for civil rights.

On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships.

In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest. Cowritten with Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient Derrick Barnes and illustrated with bold and muscular artwork from Emmy Award–winning illustrator Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand! paints a stirring portrait of an iconic moment in Olympic history that still resonates today.

I can't wait to add this to my school library's collection. And, isn't that cover amazing? Happy reading!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Image: Penguin Random House

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours, 26 minutes. Read by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan and Kausar Mohammed. Listening Library, March, 2022. 9780593502228. (Review of finished e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Ms. Tahir made a huge splash with her debut trilogy starter, An Ember in the Ashes. Here she turns from fantasy to contemporary realistic fiction and the results are gut-wrenching and utterly compelling.

Salahudin and Noor are eighteen-year-old seniors living in a small town in the Mojave Desert in California. They are the only Muslims in town and used to be best friends. Noor is an orphan who lost her parents in an earthquake in Pakistan when she was six. Her uncle, who owns a liquor store and was her only living relative, brought her to the U.S., but has banned her from speaking Punjabi or practicing Islam. Though Noor wishes to attend college and eventually study medicine, her uncle's plans for her to work at his liquor store full-time.

Sal's parents own the financially failing Cloud Rest Motel and his mother, Misbah has ignored her health problems due to lack of insurance. His father struggles with alcoholism. Sal learns of the severity of the financial problems when Misbah dies. His father is useless and Sal vows to save the motel, but makes a poor choice in order to do so.

The POV (point-of-view) shifts between Noor and Sal in the present with snippets of the past narrated by Misbah. The result is a feeling of immediacy and utter dread as the story unfolds. Issues of class, race, Islamaphobia, abuse, found family and the criminal justice system collide in a compelling, yet painful narrative. I read this one with my ears and had to stop often due to the intensity of emotions I felt.

Mature teen fans of the author's Ember in the Ashes Trilogy will most definitely want to read All My Rage, as will fans of contemporary realistic fiction. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time. 

I'm so glad I read this with my ears. The three narrators were pitch perfect. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird

HC Image: Macmillan Publishers

The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird. Unabridged e-audio book, ~7 hours. Read by Christopher Salazar. Dreamscape Media, April, 2022. 9781666527629. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! How's your summer going? The weekend's weather sure was a gift. Hot, but dry and nicely breezy. I got a lot of walking and yard work done. 

Middle Grade Monday features The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird. Benjamin Waterfalls is one angry teen. His dad left the family seven years earlier, when Benny was six. He shoplifts and has a side hustle selling his stolen goods at school. Now he's angry with himself because he has been caught shoplifting, of all things, a stuffed bear. He has no idea what possessed him and now he's before a judge he's seen before and the judge is not happy that he's back. It seems that Benny is headed to juvie, but his mother steps in with the idea of sending Benny to live in Grand Portage with his dad on the Ojibwe reservation and attend a tribal boot camp. Benny would almost rather go to boot camp than spend any time with his dad.

This thoughtful novel of redemption contains some interesting characters, each flawed in their own way. The boot camp isn't at all what Benny was expecting and he comes to appreciate the Ojibwe way of life and reconnects with his culture. Ojibwe words and phrases are sprinkled throughout as are customs and traditions. 

But wait, you may be wondering about that second person on the cover. Who is that masked girl?  Why does no one seem bothered by the fact that she never takes it off? Read the book to find out. By that, I recommend that you read with your eyes instead of with your ears, as I did. 

Regular readers of this blog know that my pet peeve with audiobooks has to do with adult readers reading first-person narratives of kids. Women can generally pull it off, but very few men can. While this narrator seemed comfortable pronouncing the Ojibwa words, I felt he was trying too hard to sound like a sarcastic kid. It came off over-the-top to me.

Fact Friday: Star Child: a Biographical Constellation of Octavia E. Butler by Ibi Zoboi

Image: Penguin Random House

Star Child: a Biographical Constellation of Octavia E. Butler by Ibi Zoboi. 128 p. Penguin Young Readers Group, January, 2022. 9780399187384. (Review of finished copy of hc and audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Friday! I hope your summer is going well and that you're getting outdoors as well as reading as much as you can. Boo and I have been taking lots of long walks in the early morning before it gets too hot.

Fact Friday features Star Child: a Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi. Octavia E. Butler was a science fiction writer notable not just for her superb writing, but also for the fact that she was a Black woman in a field dominated by white men. Ms. Zoboi's unique biography combines poems and commentary with photos to relate the life of Ms. Butler.

Octavia E. Butler's father died when she was four. She grew up in Pasadena, California with her mother and grandmother. She didn't do particularly well in school due to her undiagnosed dyslexia, but she had a fertile imagination and made up stories. The poems vary from playful concrete poems to couplets and blank verse. 

Each section is introduced in prose that provides context for the poems to follow. Quotes by Ms. Butler are liberally sprinkled throughout the book. The author discusses her fandom in the final section and back matter includes a list of Ms. Butler's books, acknowledgements, source notes and photo credits.

I originally started reading this one with my ears and it didn't work. The author read the prose sections and, well, there's a reason why authors aren't always the best readers of their work (Douglas Adams and Libba Bray being notable exceptions). Ms. Zoboi sounded flat and like she had a cold. (She narrated her MG debut, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, and, while I didn't love the book, I noted on GR that the author narrated ably. So maybe she had a cold. That's on the producers.) Plus, I missed the illustrations and some of the more interesting poems that played with space. I switched to reading with my eyes.

I'm looking forward to adding this intriguing biography to my school's collection this fall. I'm not sure who the reader is though. I didn't encounter Ms. Butler until well into adulthood and neither did the author. 

#tbt: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Image: Hachette Book Group

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud. 400 p. Originally Disney/ Hyperion, now Hachette Book Group, September, 2013. (own)

#tbt features The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud. The citizens of England are beset with the Problem. They are overrun with ghosts that are malevolent and deadly. The problem is, they can be seen only by children. There are agencies run by adults who hire children under the age of eighteen, arm them with rapiers, iron chains, and magnesium fire and send them out on missions. Children can see the ghosts, but are not immune to their ghosttouch and many die as well. Lucy Carlyle joins Lockwood and Co., an agency trying to make a name for itself and run by Anthony Lockwood with the help of George Cubbins. The other agencies are not happy about this upstart agency run by a teen boy and when Lucy, Anthony and George inadvertently burn a house down during a job, there are calls to shut the agency down. Anthony accepts a dicey job at London's most haunted mansion in an effort to make a name for himself and the agency.

This series starter is atmospheric and spooky, filled with colorful characters and witty dialogue. The story is told from Lucy's point-of-view. She has a few secrets she'd prefer not to share with Anthony and George. George isn't delighted with Lucy's arrival and Anthony's got some secrets as well.

Jonathan Stroud is a British author who is best known for his Bartimaeus Trilogy. The Screaming Staircase was first published in the UK in August of 2013, and in the US the following month. While it was optioned for film in 2012, the rights were sold. It will be a Netflix series set to release soon.

Waiting on Wednesday: Whale Done by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Whale Done by Stuart Gibbs. 352 p. FunJungle #8. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, February 21, 2022. 9781534499317.

Happy Wednesday! Stuart Gibbs, a hands-down TMS favorite author, has another FunJungle book coming out! Yes! The eighth book in this hilarious series, called Whale Done, is due out on February 21, 2023! 

Here's the publisher synopsis: After an escaped kangaroo starts a fire that burns down his house, Teddy Fitzroy accepts an invitation to go to Malibu with his girlfriend, Summer, and her mother, Kandace. He’s hoping to spend some time relaxing on the beach, but wherever Teddy goes, trouble isn’t far behind.

First, a massive dead whale has washed up on the beach—and before anyone can determine what killed it, it explodes. Doc, the head vet from FunJungle, suspects something fishy is going on and ropes Teddy and Summer into helping him investigate.

Then, Teddy stumbles upon yet another mystery involving tons of stolen sand. And the paparazzi start spreading rumors about Summer dating a celebrity, leading Teddy to question their relationship.

Without Summer as his trusted partner, can Teddy navigate the rough waters of this glitzy world and uncover what’s going on?

I can't wait! Happy reading!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~4 hours, 20 minutes. Read by Juliette Goglia. Versify/ HarperCollins Publishers, March, 2022. 9780358669258. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson. The year is 1932 in this historical verse novel. Eighteen-year-old Hilde has just aged out of the orphanage she has lived in since her mother died. She's now trudging the streets of Berlin in search of a job with few prospects. After living rough and sleeping in parks, Hilde stumbles upon the Café Lila, a cabaret where gay and lesbian patrons safely gather and find community. Hilde catches the eye of Rosa, one of the café's waitresses and singers, who makes Hilde feel welcomed. She pitches in to help since they are short staffed and, has a job by the end of the evening, but not a place to stay, until Rosa invites her to stay in the apartment she shares with her aunt.

Friendship and, ultimately, romance bloom, but there are dark times on the horizon in Germany. Hitler is rising to power and unleashing raging anti-semitism and homophobia. Readers of this spare, evocative verse novel become fully immersed in 1932 Berlin and its thriving lgbtq community while knowing the devastation that is looming. Back matter includes an author's note and resources for further reading.

The narrator's performance was well-paced and German words and phrases seemingly fluent. Ms. Wilson's debut, White Rose, is a stunning work of historical fiction that was extensively researched. The same can be said for her sophomore novel. Mature teen fans of White Rose will be spellbound by The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin.