Month: March 2019

Sorta Like a Rockstar

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Amber and her mom are temporarily homeless – just until her mom can find them a place to stay, which she keeps promising will be soon. In the mean time, they’re sleeping in the school bus that her mom drives. Amber’s group of friends are the other kids who don’t quite fit in at her school – a kid who uses a wheelchair and his brother, a kid with Autism, and the only African American kid in the whole school. The rest of the cast includes her lovable dog, a Vietnam vet with a passion for green tea and haikus, and a smart, strong lawyer who won’t give up on Amber.

In this book, we walk with Amber through the halls of her school, seeing the people who love her and the people who don’t acknowledge she exists. We see Amber’s relentless positivity being challenged when tragedy hits her life. We watch Amber slide into depression. We feel her friends and the caring adults in her life come alongside her to help her get back on her feet. Sorta Like a Rock Star doesn’t pull any punches – it shows what it’s like to experience homelessness, to go through grief, to be depressed, and to have to figure out how to keep going.

Favorite Passage:

We’re celebrating our freedom. We’re celebrating our ability to be kids when everything is trying to take that away from us. It’s a choice, Ty. We can do whatever we want.
– Chapter 59

What I Loved Most:

I came across Sorta Like a Rock Star while planning a social justice book club for teens, and loved the way it showcased homelessness and mental illness in a real way. A 2017 study found that over the course of a 12 month period, one out of every thirty kids aged 13-17 in America experienced homelessness. That’s about 700,000 high school kids who were homeless over the year that they measured. Homelessness is a real problem facing so many of our students, and I appreciate the way this book shines a light on what it’s like to be a homeless student.

Read this book if you like:

Unique protagonists, accurate portrayals of homelessness, creating a family of choice

Book Details:

The Truths We Hold

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Kamala Harris was raised by parents who instilled a love of justice in her from a young age. Her mom (a breast cancer scientific researcher, originally born in India) and dad (an economics professor at Stanford, originally born in Jamaica) met through the civil rights movement while they were in graduate school. They taught Kamala that it was important to stand up for what was right, and she has been dedicated her life to doing just that. Harris has worn many hats throughout her career – District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General of California, and Senator on behalf of California. As of her recent announcement, she is adding Presidential Hopeful to that esteemed list.

In her book, Harris discusses everything from her political opinions to her industrious career to the pain of losing her mom to cancer. She gives us an in-depth look at major events that have happened in her career – the housing crisis, prison sentencing reform, the Back on Track program she spearheaded to reduce recidivism, the family separation policy at the U.S. border, and Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court were just a few topics she touches on. Harris is eloquent in her writing, and is both well-informed and passionate as she shares her opinions on political issues.

I love voting and elections. I think I am probably in the minority on that, as most people I know find politics exhausting. While I definitely don’t appreciate the vitriol that tends to characterize American elections, I find it absolutely thrilling that we as citizens get to have a hand in shaping what our government looks like. In considering who I want to vote for in the 2020 election, one of the best ways I have found to learn about candidates is to read their memoirs. The Truths We Hold is the first in what is sure to be a long line of books I read from presidential hopefuls before the 2020 election.

Favorite Passage:

A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.

What I Loved Most:

Harris discusses the American tendency toward false choices. For example, she states that most people feel you can either want the police to arrest dangerous criminals, or you can want the police to stop using excessive force. Harris says that you can and should want both – that you can support the brave men and women serving their country as police members while also wanting to hold them accountable for using unnecessary violence. Our current political system often says that you have to choose one side of an issue, even though most issues aren’t black and white enough to divide into only two choices. I personally hold the utmost respect for police officers, and I also believe that black lives matter. I appreciate Harris’s approach to criminal justice reform, stating that we need to hold our police officers accountable for using ethical tactics while creating an environment that supports our men and women in uniform.

Read this book if you like:

Being politically informed, memoirs, successful women of color, learning more about the legal system

Book Details:

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone

~ rachelbenzine ~ 2 Comments

Review:

When she is ten years old, Bronte Mettlestone finds out that her parents were killed by pirates. This doesn’t upset her that much, as she has never met them. She was raised by her Aunt Isabelle and the Butler. However, her parents left a faery-cross-stitched will that binds her to go on a journey. She must deliver presents to each one of her father’s ten other sisters (since they left Aunt Isabelle her gift of cloudberry tea when they deposited Bronte on her doorstep as a baby). So begins her voyage, though which she will eat oranges from one aunt’s orchard, ride a dragon at another’s dragon hospital, encounter water sprites and elves, accidentally start an avalanche, and perhaps rescue a Kingdom from an evil King.

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone is eight-year-old-me’s dream book, and is one of twenty-six-year-old-me’s favorite books that I’ve read in the last year. There’s adventure and fun and friendships and magic, which creates an engrossing volume that will thrill middle-grade readers. I cannot recommend this book too highly. Go get it, right now.

Favorite Passage:

“Why did you come on the journey?” Sebastian asked suddenly. “I know the faery cross-stitch would destroy Gainsleigh if you didn’t come, so is that why? Is it because you love Gainsleigh?”
“Your question shows an extreme lack on insight,” I said. “Of course I love Gainsleigh. It’s my home! I love the harbor and the Botanical Gardens and the cobblestone streets lined with gardenia trees! Not lobelia, you see. But that is beside the point. Even if I did not know a town — even if I hated it! — I would not want to be the cause of its buildings and bridges crashing down!”
After a moment, Sebastian asked his parents what an extreme lack of insight meant.
“It means you asked a daft question,” Uncle Josh told him.
– Chapter 12

What I Loved Most:

Moriarty writes with this poetic, lovely, flowery language that is a spell in and of itself. She is truly an artist, crafting a splendid world that abounds in delight and cheer. It’s not that everything in the book is all sunshine and happiness — the very premise of the book is based on a child’s parents dying. But the way that Moriarty chooses to express herself is lavish and sumptuous while also remaining accessible to younger readers.

Read this book if you like:

Adventures, magic, feeling as if you’re close friends with book characters

Book Details: