Tag: high school

If These Wings Could Fly

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Home is supposed to be a refuge. For Leighton, it’s the center of the storm. Most of her peers are figuring out what college to attend when their senior year is finished. Leighton is trying to decide if she’s going to be able to escape her hometown, or if it’s more important for her to stay home continue to protect her mom and younger sisters from her dad’s rage.

While she’s navigating the murky waters of her last year of high school, thousands and thousands of crows are descending on her hometown. No one knows why the crows are lingering, or how to get rid of them. Between writing a column for her school newspaper about the crows, fighting her growing attachment to a great guy named Liam, and keeping her sisters safe in her room while her dad escalates in violence toward her mom, Leighton has to figure out how to chart a course forward.

Favorite Passage:

“I take Mom’s hand.
I see a fractured system, delicate and damaged, that could collapse right under our feet.
She sees home.”
— Chapter Fifty-One
[This passage was quoted from an ARC; as such, it may change before final publication.]

What I Loved Most:

Violence at home is such a real issue in our society. In the author’s note of the Advanced Reader’s Copy that I got from Katherine Tegen Books (thanks, friends!), Kyrie McCauley shares that she’s writing the book she wishes her sixteen-year-old self would have been able to read. If These Wings Could Fly is heart breaking and empowering and motivating. It calls attention to emotional abuse, as well as the way that domestic violence is cyclical and tends to escalate over time. Especially in this time of quarantine and staying-at-home, my heart has been drifting to those who home is not a safe place for. It’s crucial reading at any time, but seems extra important right now.

I want to put this here in case anyone needs it: the National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), and you can also chat with an advocate on their website. If you need help, and can get to a place where it’s safe to reach out for help, please contact them. Also, I love you, and it’s not your fault, and you deserve to be safe.

Read this book if you like:

Strong female protagonists, magical realism, gut-wrenchingly real pain mixed with hopefulness

Book Details:

 

Screen Queens

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

ValleyStart is a tech competition, aimed at helping high schoolers showcase their coding/design/creative skills. The goal for all contestants is to land an internship at one of the most prestigious companies in Silicon Valley. Lucy, Maddie, and Delia are paired up by the competition administrators to be a team – and when they arrive, they realize they are the only all-female team. Screen Queens is an incisive examination of what it means to be a teenage girl with hopes of making it in the male-dominated field of technology. It touches on sexism and female friendships and achieving the high goals one sets for oneself. I have nothing but positive things to say about this novel – go pick it up.

Favorite Passage:

“‘I had drinks with him.’
‘So?’
‘I smiled and laughed. I flirted.’
‘And?’
‘I led him on. I -‘
‘Did nothing to invite him to put his hands on you — and not remove them when you said to.'”
— Twenty

What I Loved Most:

This is one of those books where you’re super mad while reading it, but it’s the good kind of mad. It’s a great depiction of being a woman in a male-dominated field. Screen Queens doesn’t pull any punches in its exploration of abuse of power by men, particularly to more vulnerable, younger women. I’m here for any story about women in STEM fields, and I think Screen Queens does a great job of helping teenagers learn about this crucial social justice issue in a way that is age appropriate.

Read this book if you like:

Feminism, girls in STEM, subtle diversity

Book Details:

  • Author: Lori Goldstein
  • Publisher: Razorbill
  • Date of Publication: June 11, 2019
  • Age Recommendation: 10th – 12th grade
  • Check out Screen Queens on Worldcat to find it at a library near you!

With the Fire on High

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

The two most important people in Emoni Santiago’s life are her daughter (two year old Emma, affectionately called Babygirl) and the grandmother who is raising her (‘Buela). Emoni is a senior in high school this year. When her school decides to offer an elective class in culinary arts, she is torn between the desire to improve her cooking skills and the knowledge that she doesn’t have time for a seemingly frivolous class. But Emoni’s cooking seems to be magical – it brings out emotions in the people who eat it. In her heart, she knows that cooking is her calling.

I absolutely adored With the Fire on High. The chapters are written in short vignettes, so it’s a great book to read if you only have a couple minutes at a time. But be forewarned – it’s so compelling that you can’t help but pick it up again shortly after you put it down. It’s a great read for high school students, particularly for those who are trying to decide how they want to navigate life after high school. It comes out one week from today, and is a must to add to your TBR list!

Favorite Passage:

I dream everyday for Babygirl. I see people in business suits on the bus and I imagine Babygirl grown up with a briefcase and a nice executive office job. I watch a TV show and imagine Babygirl as a famous actress winning an Oscar. There’s so much I want for her that somethings I think the seams of my skin aren’t enough to contain every hope I have. And I whisper it to her all the time. When I’m feeding her. When she’s asleep in my arms. When we are playing at the park. I whisper all the everything I know she can be and the ways I’ll fight for her to be them. I want her to know her entire life her mommy may not have been much but that her moms did everything so that she could be an accumulation of the best dreams.
— Dreams

What I Loved Most:

I’ve read several books about teen pregnancy, but they always seem to be about that moment when the girl finds out she’s pregnant and is deciding what she wants to do. With the Fire on High is an empowering story of a teenager who is successfully raising her daughter. It goes beyond the “OMG I’m pregnant” time period to focus instead on what it looks like to raise a child while being in school and working to help support a household. Emoni is a great mom, and I loved exploring her mindset and the way she cares so fiercely for her daughter.

Read this book if you like:

Contemporary fiction, teen moms, dreaming, charting your own path

Book Details: