Book #7 of the year was the 2022 Newbery winner, The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera. When I was going to have to wait 14 weeks to borrow it from the library on my Kindle, I broke down and bought it. I was glad I had; I enjoyed it very much.
Book #8 was Everywhere Blue, by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz. This is a verse novel with a 12 year old protagonist, Maddie, whose older brother has disappeared. It feels to Maddie as though her family and the world are falling apart, and that's a feeling many readers her age may share. There's a realistic but hopeful outcome to her story. This book won the Cybils award for poetry this year.
Book #9 was The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey. I didn't predict the direction this novel about cloning was headed, and I certainly didn't get the deep metaphorical resonances revealed in an afterword that made me want to go read the whole thing again.
Note: both of those last two books are available at very low prices on Kindle right now, as I'm writing this post. I have no idea how long the deals will last!
Book #10 was a graphic novel, When Stars are Scattered, by Victoria Jamieson. It's about Somali brothers, one of them with an intellectual disability, living in a refugee camp in Kenya. Wow, what a memorable and excellent book, an unflinching look at what it's really like to grow up in a place like Dadaab, and yet -- somehow -- never give up hope. I read in the reviews that it's very brightly colored. My copy, borrowed from the library on my Kindle, was black and white, but the art still blew me away, along with the story. Highly recommended.
2 comments:
Thank you so much for reading and recommending my verse novel, EVERYWHERE BLUE (which won the Cybils Award for Poetry). I'm honored that you've listed it alongside such stellar books as the Newbery winner, The Last Cuentista (which is at the top of my TBR stack!).
Thank you for your visit! I updated my post to include the award, and congratulations! I really enjoyed the book.
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