libscote's reviews
6325 reviews

I feel like I didn't really get this book. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more had I been more familiar with the Cthulhu mythos.  

Most people have given up their hearts, so they won't feel pain any more. Of course, they won't feel joy either. Anything at all, really. But one brave teen refuses to give up her heart, which may be the thing that saves humanity in the end. A thought-provoking book about the power of emotion, especially in a world that pressures you to feel nothing at all. 

Beautiful illustrations, but it feels weird to read books by a known TERF. It definitely lessened my enjoyment. 

It's a brutally cold winter in 1880s Sweden, Mika is at an orphanage trying her best to keep herself and everyone else there alive. A mysterious killer named the Night Raven is on the loose, and Mika gets herself involved in the case. Can she help stop the killer with her observational skills? As an adult I didn't find the situation completely believable, but as a kid this book keeps on the edge of your seat.

 Yu’er and her grandpa living in a neighborhood called a hutong in Beijing, China. Throughout these four stories, you get a sense of their life and what living in Beijing might be like. Each of these stories has a sense of the magical about it, like when Yu’er is training for the Special Olympics in swimming and ends up flying. My favorite story is the last one, in which a grumpy painter slowly comes out of his shell after bonding with Yu’er about art. Jun’s illustrations are somewhere between an American cartoon style and manga and are a joy to look at. I especially enjoyed seeing when the eyes changed from full view to hidden, and I smiled every time Yu’er’s grandpa was on the page. This book was also a Batchelder Honor in 2019.  

At first I was like, poor Gamache. What more can happen to him? And then that cliffhanger ending! AHHHH

Not really my favorite retelling of the Trojan myth. Many of the women have no agency and things just happen to them. 

A lovely lovely book that makes you think about how much we gender humans from the moment we are conceived. 

 This book is part of a series that looks at what would happen if different apex predators (and bees) disappeared from our world. This one has the bonus of talking about the importance of the Arctic and sea ice on our planet. I like that Williams ends the stories encouraging us to have hope, and that a solution may yet be found. 

 Raphael loves his best friend Jerome, and he’s not afraid to say it. They have so much fun together, they get each other’s stories, and Jerome saves seats for Raphael even when he is with his other friends. Raphael is confused about why his parents, especially his father, don’t seem to understand how he loves Jerome so much. The line expressing that his father’s voice is “like sharp fish bones in my hot chocolate” expresses his feelings so well. This book is a testament to the power of friendship among children and the way adults can react to it, especially powerful friendship between two boys that takes on a softer tone.