Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME from last week's blog. ******** I always enjoy sharing amazing books and a young adult author who I'm unfamiliar with. That's what you'll find if you read, or listen to, Carrie Arcos' book, We Are All That's Left (Philomel, 2018). Both narrators, Laura Knight Keating and Elisabeth Rodgers, perform… Continue reading We are All That's Left: A Review and a Great Audio CD for You
This is a busy week on my blog. TWO giveaways running concurrently! WARNING: Reading this book will make you stay up late and the characters will haunt you long after you finish reading it. Readers of my blog are no strangers to Alan Gratz's books. You're a click away from seeing what I thought of… Continue reading REFUGEE- A Review and Giveaway- Part I
This new young adult novel by Atia Abawi, a foreign news correspondent stationed in Afghanistan during the war, has all the elements of Romeo and Juliet: young lovers from families of different social status and backgrounds, parents who disapprove of their relationship, a jealous cousin, deaths of innocent secondary characters, and a clandestine marriage performed by a sympathetic… Continue reading The Secret Sky:A Novel of Forbidden Love in Afghanistan and A Giveaway
As part of my research for Half-Truths, I am reading as many books as I can which probe the relationships between African Americans and whites. By now I am less surprised by stories of segregation and prejudice in the 20th century, but Dangerous Skies is an exception. Readers may be shocked that this story takes… Continue reading Dangerous Skies
In 1998 Kosovo was a country divided between the Serbs and the Albanians. In this coming-of-age story, Albanian Meli Lleshi grows up in the context of persecution and ethnic cleansing that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The Day of the Pelican opens with Meli’s older brother, Mehmet, disappearing on the way home from school. The family fears… Continue reading The Day of the Pelican: Contemporary Historical Fiction