This week Zetta Elliott's newest book Ship of Souls was released, my review. I loved the characters she created and the dangerous adventure they went on. Later this month Neesha Meminger's has a novel coming out called Into the Wise Dark. I will be reviewing this one soon. I loved the second half of the novel, and it help me appreciate all the world building in the first part. While I look forward to mentioning both of these titles whenever I can (like I do all books I've enjoyed) I am not blind to the fact that my neutral credibility can come into question with both authors. I suppose I should've thought about not reviewing them (but I didn't, well unless I didn't like them that is) If you haven't notice in author's of color who write children's and young adult do not have it easy, and that's why it never crossed my mind to bypass reviewing Ship of Souls or Into the Wise Dark. Some will question my neutrality as it relates to both of these reviews, which is cool because I would be a bit suspicious but all I can do is add a disclaimer and move on.
Last year Margo Tanenbaum, of The Fourth Musketeer, and Lisa Taylor, of Shelf-employed started Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month. There were guest post by bloggers and authors throughout March. All are which are archived on the site and are definitely worth checking out. This month I am looking forward to reading new post recognizing the contributions of women in history. Last Month author Carleen Brice was kind enough to let me post an interview I did with author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson about her newest release No Crystal Stair at her blog White Readers Meet Black Authors. Later this week I will be posting an interview Brice did with Barbara Wright about her middle grade debut Crow. Prior to that I will share my review of Crow and since I am opening up my space for the interview, I hope it goes without saying that I enjoyed the novel.
This is a great introduction to 26 heroes. A few were well known like Corrie Ten Boom and Josephine Baker. Many hid Jews. Some women were captured and killed. All did their part to stop Hitler's reign. The text is fact filled and engaging. I was easily drawn the stories of these brave women. Well sited with extensive notes and a bibliography in the back. After each women story, a learn more box is included.
Much of the credit goes to organizers Margo Tanenbaum and Lisa Taylor. I am very happy they didn't listen to my suggestion about which covers to show. What they did is so much better. I never would've thought to include the video interview with Paula Yoo. The link to the video, yes. That one extra step could mean the difference of someone buying Shining Star.
Author Esther Friesner's Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month post - Haunted by History Friesner has an historical fiction novel coming out called Threads and Flames about the 1910 Triangle Fire, which killed over 140 workers thanks to unsafe working conditions. Friday, March 25 was the anniversary of the fire. On Friday morning I read Friesner's Haunted by History
In the evening I read author Zetta Elliott's post about the Triangle Fire Elliott links to the PBS film and I will do the same here . After reading two separate post about the Triangle Fire, I didn't hesitate to watch the film.
On Monday, I nominated four titles for Nerds Heart YA including three I mentioned in a previous post. The other book I nominated was What Momma Left Me by Renee Watson. You until March 7th to nominate books for Nerds Heart YA
Congratulations to author Shaun Tan for winning an Oscar for best animated flim for The Lost Thing. If you've never read Tan your missing out, his work is ridiculosuly good.
Author Neesha Meminger stopped by The Book Smugglers this week.
My biggest inspirations and influences were feminist writers. But wait – let me go back a bit. When I was younger, I really loved the tikki-tikki-tembo story. It’s the first story I remember really loving. I heard it in the library when I was, maybe, in third grade. The librarian read it aloud to the class and I was absolutely immersed. Could be because the story was about a boy with a name no one could pronounce, a name that was long and weird and foreign (like mine), but I completely related to that boy in the story.
If you plan on buying Jazz in Love please don't buy a used copy. The author doesn't get any credit for that resale. Self publishing is hard enough without authors having to contend with people selling a book for a profit. Jazz in love is only $11.00 new. Yet some people are selling their copies for more then that.
Since then I have read about many women involved in aviation; one of the most obscure (and interesting) was early 20th century parachutist Elizabeth Shepherd. "Dolly" was a waitress at the Alexandra Palace in London when she met balloonist Auguste Gaudron who was looking for a girl parachutist for his act. In 1904 being a parachutist meant rising in the balloon basket to at least 2,000 feet then dropping down over the side and hanging from a trapeze bar to which she was attached with a safety strap. When she was ready to let go (and Dolly liked to go quite high) she would let go of the bar, releasing the strap. At that point all of her weight would be placed on the ropes attaching her to the parachute which hung limp from the balloon. If all was right, the parachute would open and Dolly would fall slowly back down to the ground.
There's a recent article at the School Library Journal called The Civil War: Beyond the Battlefield. Several titles are recommend. I was very disappointed that A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott wasn't one of them. Even more so when I noticed there was a section called Looking Backward: History, Crafts, and Time Travel . In A Wish After Midnight, 15 yr old Genna loves to make wishes, one wish transports are back to civil war era Brooklyn.
I know its an irrational thought but I couldn't help but wonder if only I did a little more for A Wish After Midnight, the right person would've heard about it and it would've been included.
I recently finished and loved Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry. I picked it up because of the cover by the second chapter, I wanted to hug the book. It was my kind of mystery. I even left a fan gush comment on the author's blog. Something I don't do often. read an excerpt
One YA novel I am really looking forward to reviewing when it gets closer to the release date is Huntress by Malinda Lo. It was so good. I loved it. For once a story lives up to its beautiful. cover.
This blog was founded in order to commemorate Women's History Month across the kidlitosphere, the community of bloggers specializing in children's and young adult literature. This inaugural 2011 celebration is organized by bloggers The Fourth Musketeer, a library science student, and Shelf-Employed, a children's librarian. Why celebrate women's history and children's literature? Not so long ago, women's history was virtually ignored in the K-12 curriculum. To address this situation, “Women’s History Week” was started in California in 1978; the observance became national in 1981 with a joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming National Women’s Week, which was extended a few years later into Women’s History Month.
I first heard about this thanks to a Non Fiction Monday in early Feburary. Margo and Lisa were looking for bloggers who wanted to participate. I quickly jumped at the chance, I knew if I thought too long all the spots would be filled. Sure enough, there were only a few dates left open. Here is the full line up.
March 1 Shelf-Employed March 2 Kathleen Krull - author March 3 Chasing Ray March 4 Ann Bausum - author March 5 Pragmatic Mom March 6 Jan Godown Annino - author March 7 Tanya Lee Stone - author March 8 Carolyn Meyer - author March 9 Tami Lewis Brown - author March 10 Marissa Moss - author March 11 Teach with Picture Books March 12 Heidi Hemming March 13 Audrey Vernick - author March 14 Holly George Warren - author March 15 Abby the Librarian March 16 Say it Rah-shay March 17 Diane Browning March 18 Great Kid Books March 19 Linda Brewster March 20 GreenBeanTeenQueen March 21 The HappyNappyBookseller March 22 Books of Wonder and Wisdom March 23 Erica Silverman - author March 24 Tonya Bolden - author March 25 Esther Friesner - author March 26 Marthe Jocelyn - author March 27 Waking Brain Cells March 28 Sue Macy - author March 29 Anita Silvey - author March 30 Candace Fleming - author March 31 Children's War April 1 The Fourth Musketeer
I am very honored to be a part of this inaugural launch. It's nice to know that long after Women's History Month is over, all of these post will still be waiting to be found by even more readers.
While I look forward to mentioning both of these titles whenever I can (like I do all books I've enjoyed) I am not blind to the fact that my neutral credibility can come into question with both authors. I suppose I should've thought about not reviewing them (but I didn't, well unless I didn't like them that is) If you haven't notice in author's of color who write children's and young adult do not have it easy, and that's why it never crossed my mind to bypass reviewing Ship of Souls or Into the Wise Dark.
Some will question my neutrality as it relates to both of these reviews, which is cool because I would be a bit suspicious but all I can do is add a disclaimer and move on.
Last Month author Carleen Brice was kind enough to let me post an interview I did with author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson about her newest release No Crystal Stair at her blog White Readers Meet Black Authors. Later this week I will be posting an interview Brice did with Barbara Wright about her middle grade debut Crow. Prior to that I will share my review of Crow and since I am opening up my space for the interview, I hope it goes without saying that I enjoyed the novel.
