4.5 disco balls
Published: February 12, 2019 by Dial Books
Length: 6 hours and 13 minutes, cast of narrators
Category: Middle Grade, Fiction, LGBT
Total Parent Trap vibes, but obviously not the exact storyline. If you are a fan of the original movie you will start singing “Let’s Get Together yeah, yeah, yeah” 🎶 to yourself quite often, or at least I did. 😉Read More »
4 disco balls
Published: August 28, 2018 by Listening Library
Narrators: N’Jameh Camara, Jose Carrera, Dean Flanagan, Angel Romero, Toshi Widoff-Woodson, Mikelle Wright-Matos, Jacqueline Woodson
Length: 3 hours 50 minutes
Category: Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult
When I requested to read and review Harbor Me through Penguin Random House’s Volumes app I didn’t realize it was a middle grade book; BUT, don’t let that put you off from this story. It is for all ages; and would be a great book for families to read/listen to together. The content would spark discussions on topics such as bullying, grief, racism, classism, and immigration.
Author, Jacqueline Woodson, carefully crafted a story that addresses these major issues without forcing them into place; it was an authentic take on what is going on today and impresses upon our youth to talk more openly about their feelings and try to understand each other. We are all the same in that we want to feel that we belong. Even though the story is rather short, the character development was strong and you can’t help but feel for this group of children. I want to see them 20 years from now.Read More »
5 disco balls
First published: July 11, 1960 by J. B. Lippincott Co.
Category: Classics, Historical Fiction, Coming of age
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961), Audie Award for Classic (2007), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1961), Alabama Author Award for Fiction (1961)
To Kill a Mockingbird was Book 4 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; I’ve reached the 50% mark!
How does one even review a book of this notoriety? In my honest opinion, you can’t: or I certainly can’t. All I can say is that I waited way too long to read this book. I think I took the easy way out in high school and watched the movie or read the Cliff Notes, but never dove right into this gem. Well, I can finally mark this Great American Read off my list! Phew.
Goodreads synopsis: 4.27 average rating
A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.
Instead of reviewing, I thought I would share some TKAM fun facts and the like. Read More »
5 disco balls
Published: April 20, 2006 by Speak (first published 1967)
Category: Classics, Young Adult, Fiction
The Outsiders was Book 2 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; two down, six to go! Reading this in one day sure made up the time it took me to read Rebecca, phew. I am back on pace but still have Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ahead so hope I give myself enough time to finish my overdue homework 😉
I don’t know what more to say than I should have read this for homework when I was a kid. I’ve missed out on this incredible story all these years! Never mind that this book was written by a teenager, Susan Eloise Hinton used her initials to hide the fact she was a female so male readers wouldn’t dismiss her. Knowing she was an impressionable youth herself blows my mind. The insight and care she had given to the character development is beyond 5 stars: beyond!Read More »
Saturday Nite Reader 