Look Both Ways

Let me start by saying I LOVE Jason Reynolds.  He is brilliant.  So I was very intrigued with the concept of this book... 10 tales of a day...same school... ten different stories of kids leaving school.  Each brief chapter celebrated different characters and their struggles and joys of middle school.  You get glimpses of the others in each story, but don't see it until their story is laid out.  I will say I found it a bit confusing.  I could go back and read it again and probably pick up more brilliance of its interconnectedness.  I was confused by the bus falling from the sky, also.  My students probably would be, too.  (FIC REY)

The New Kid

Jerry Craft is the author of this graphic novel getting a lot of acclaim right now.  It is about a boy named Jordan who transfers to a posh, mostly-white middle school rather than go to the art school he wants to go to.  Like any new kid, he struggles to fit in, but it is complicated by the racial inequity in the school.  He and the other students of color find themselves the victims of discrimination and racial profiling.  Jordan's parents hope that his ability to handle it in school will help him handle it later in the real world.  It was a honest look at racism that is still present in our society and how it may impact students of color in a mostly-white school.  (GN CRA)

Caterpillar Summer

I thoroughly enjoyed this realistic fiction novel by Gillian McDunn.  Cat is excited to spend some of her summer vacation visiting her best friend in Georgia.  But those plans fall apart, and her and her special-needs brother, Chicken, are dropped off with their mother's parents on an island in North Carolina.  They have never met them.  At first, Cat is nervous.  Chicken does not do well with change.  How can Cat take care of him here?  She soon grows to love the place, finds friends, and learns to fish.   She learns a lot about herself and her mom's past, while also teaching her family about forgiveness.  It was a beautiful and sweet story.  (FIC MCD)