When Vivy gets a chance to play on her first real baseball team – after years of watching her older brother play and practicing with him in their backyard – she encounters bullying from the coach’s son and lack of support from her mother (especially after she gets a concussion from being hit by the […]
Category: Books
Genesis Begins Again
This book broke my heart. Genesis – a 13-year-old, infinitely likable protagonist – hates her black skin so much that she injures herself trying to lighten it and steals her mom’s credit card to buy bleaching cream. She’s got a whole list of things she doesn’t like about herself (started by bullies at her old […]
All the Impossible Things
Title: All the Impossible Things Author: Lindsay Lackey Publisher: Roaring Brook Press Reviewer: Yolanda Ridge ISBN: 978-1-250-20286-4 I have no idea what one *should* read during a pandemic. But I do know this: falling in love with a book can make the weight of the world a tiny bit lighter. All the Impossible Things opens with […]
Broken Strings
Title: Broken Strings Author: Eric Walters & Kathy Kacer Publisher: Puffing Canada Reviewer: Yolanda Ridge ISBN: 978-0-7352-6624-7 In my last post of the decade (!) I want to do a quick shout out to a great 2019 title by two Canadian kid-lit super powers. Broken Strings is a Holocaust lesson wrapped up in a story about […]
Under Pressure
Title: Under Pressure:The Science of Stress Author: Tanya Lloyd Kyi Publisher: Kids Can Press Reviewer: Yolanda Ridge ISBN: 978-1-5253-0007-3 I usually limit my reviews to middle grade fiction. But I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, partly in preparation for the release of my non-fiction title on gene editing next year. Under Pressure caught […]