Squint

 Book by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown.

This story is about a seventh grade boy with an eye disease who loves drawing comic books and a girl who is learning to be her best self as she accepts challenges from her terminally ill brother. It’s full of heart, friendship, bravery, and metaphors about “seeing” people and situations more clearly. I appreciated that it didn’t go for the cliched unrealistic endings, and instead it was more nuanced.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

 Mystery Book by Stuart Turton. This was a thoroughly original and engaging take on the murder mystery genre. In addition to keeping me guessing, the author managed to weave in themes of agency vs. determinism, integrity, redemption, and forgiveness.  “We are never more ourselves than when we think people aren’t watching.” “Tomorrow can be whatever I want it to be…. A chance to be braver or kinder, to make what was wrong right. To be better than I am today.” Note: there is quite a bit of violence depicted, drug and alcohol abuse, and one instance of implied casual sex. None of it is glorified and the descriptions are not gratuitous. Definitely more PG-13 than R. Recommended for ages 15+. Also of note: This is the same book as the one titled 7 1/2 Deaths instead of 7 Deaths. Same book, different titles.
Read more

Inkling

 Novel by Kenneth Oppel Intriguing little novel about an inkblot that becomes sentient in order to save a family stuck in mourning their wife/mother. My favorite part was how the inkblots were so influenced by their media diet. It was a great reminder that our minds and hearts are affected by the media we feed them with. Fans of comic books and graphic novels will appreciate the illustrations throughout and fans of literature will enjoy the references to various books Inkling eats. Recommended age 10+. No objectionable content.
Read more

The Anxious Generation

 Nonfiction book by Jonathan Haidt. This is a book I recommend to EVERYONE! The author’s thesis is straightforward: we are overprotecting kids in the real world while simultaneously underprotecting them in the virtual world; this combination is causing the current mental health crisis among youth. The author gives an abundance of scientific research, statistics, and anecdotal evidence to support his claims. (The last third of the book is all footnotes!) I do not recommend this as an audiobook because there are so many charts and graphs referred to that you will want to see.
Read more