A Work in Progress

Another heart-wrenching book, similar to Starfish, which documents the damage of body shaming.  Jarrett Lerner, like Lisa Fipps, shares his personal experience in this beautiful novel in verse.  One comment in fourth grade sent him on a journey of self-loathing until he finds his people and he can learn to accept and love himself again.    (FIC LER)

Opinions and Opossums

This latest short novel by Ann Braden (Flight of the Puffin) was a lovely story about a girl named Agnes who realizes that the opossum she and her neighbor save in the road needs to evolve from its usual behavior of freezing and hiding.  She sees the parallels in her own life, especially in her confirmation class.  Should she continue with it?  Does she even believe in the God they teach?  She and her best friend Mo write stories and her new stories about opossums help her sort out her feelings about her complacency and give her the courage to stand up and stand out.  This is a must-have for middle school shelves, but I think I will pass on this one for my K-5 collections as I think very few students at this age will relate.  (FIC BRA)