Young Adult

2 Cybils Non-Fiction

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

There was a time when I never quit a Cybils book but this year, I’ve quit two. The most recent, Symphony for the City of the Dead was… I just couldn’t read it. I tried, I really did. TW read the whole thing, and I give her props for that. I cannot imagine any kid reading this who didn’t have to. (Unless he/she had some great fondness for Russian history or Shostakovich, I guess.) Ugh.

Thankfully, Bayard Rustin: Invisible Activist was better. In fact, it was excellent. Everyone should read this one.

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Bewitching: The Kendra Chronicles

2016, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I have no idea how Bewitching: The Kendra Chronicles landed in our library stacks but it did. When I realized it was a sequel to a book I hadn’t read, I almost didn’t read it. But, TW said I didn’t need the first one and I believed her. She was right. It was a perfectly fine book to read without having read the first one.

It started a little slowly but I ended up enjoying it. I didn’t absolutely love the insertion of “fairy tales” from Kendra’s life but I didn’t hate it either. I may even some day read another book from this series.

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Three Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Let’s see… which graphic novels (all Cybils shortlisters) did I read? Oh yea…

Courtney Crumrin: Volume 7 … hated it. Didn’t finish it. At first, I thought it was because I’m way behind on this series, (I think the last one I read was 4), but based on the reviews — a whole lot of series fans just didn’t like this one. I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Next, Dragons Beware!. I love Claudette and her friends. Absolutely love them.

Last, but not least, Baba Yaga’s Assistant was really good. I didn’t expect much from it, I’m not a very big Baba Yaga fan, so this really exceeded expectations.

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The Walls Around Us

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Here’s a Cybils shortlister that I didn’t love. I didn’t hate it, but it just didn’t grab me the way I had hoped. From the reviews of The Walls Around Us, I might be the only person who didn’t just absolutely love it.

It’s dark, it’s ghost story-like, it’s beautifully written — it just didn’t work for me. It might, however, work for you. Try it and let me know.

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Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Thank goodness for the Cybil Awards. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is something I probably never would have picked up on my own. I like horror, but I don’t read a lot of YA horror and I certainly don’t read short story YA horror. If they’re all like this, I should change that.

This is some of the best storytelling and the best writing, PERIOD. Read it.

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Four Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Queer, Young Adult /

Readathons, even #fakereadathons, mean I get to spend some time catching up on graphic novels and these four were excellent. All four of them.

Roller Girl was awesome. I loved everything about it. I hope there are more Roller Girl books.

Next, I read March Book 2 and it was good, obviously, because John Lewis, y’all.

After that, Sunny Side Up. Poor kid. This was well written and well drawn. I didn’t expect much from it and was very pleasantly surprised.

Last, but not least, Honor Girl. Loved it. And, shockingly, I loved the ending. Some people probably didn’t – those “I want a happy endinggggg.” kinds of people. Nope. It ended exactly as it should have.

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Everything, Everything

2016, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

We listened to Everything, Everything on audio and we enjoyed it.

I have a little love/hate thing with it. I didn’t want it to be the book it ended up being… I mean I liked it well enough but I didn’t want what happened to the mom to actually happen. I also kind of didn’t want the happy little ending, though it was obvious that it was going to end that way — once the whole situation with the mother went the way it went. Which makes no sense, I know. You just have to read it to understand.

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Dumplin’

2016, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

When it was time to leave Chicagoland, we were on the last disc of the audio version of Dumplin’. Grrr. So frustrating, particularly since it wasn’t available on Overdrive or Hoopla. HMPH.

But, we got lucky because the first thing I did when I picked up my Alachua County Library card was to head for the audiobooks and guess what was there waiting for us? DUMPLIN’!

Woot.

We finished it today. It was awfully cute but it kept giving me Dolly Parton earworms. (Also, I would have liked to know who won, darn it.) And, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t expect the Willowdean in the beginning of the book to be the Willowdean in the middle of the book. And, I can’t decide if that’s good or not good.

I really don’t like it when teenagers have their acts TOO much together. It doesn’t ring true. So when the book started and Willowdean had her act together, I was skeptical. And for awhile there, I thought maybe the shift that seemed to occur was too big of a shift. But, as I thought more about it – it made more sense to me that she would have started to struggle more, or admit the struggle, with her body image as she got older, had to deal with changes in her friendships, relationships with boys, and the loss of her aunt. Makes total sense. I think.

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