MADreads

Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Second chances and healing

Cover of The Castle School (for Tro
A review of The Castle School (for Troubled Girls) by Alyssa Sheinmel

Moira is a senior in high school when her best friend, Nathan, dies of cancer. Nathan was not only her best friend, he was Moira’s only friend, the only person she thought she needed or wanted in her life. Before Nathan got sick, Moira spent more time with him and his family than her own. After he was diagnosed with cancer, she started skipping classes and meals to spend every minute she could with him. Moira’s world crashes when Nathan dies, and her parents are at a loss as to how to help her. They decide to send her to Castle School, far from home, deep in the woods of Maine.

Posted by on Jul 7, 2021

Urban adventuring

Cover of Strollercoaster
A review of Strollercoaster by Matt Ringler

One cranky preschooler plus one desperate dad, a purple stroller and an urban landscape, equals a ride as exciting as any tilt-a-whirl. Strollercoaster is an invention created by Matt Ringler for his own daughter when the daily frustrations got to be too much, and an exciting distraction was just the ticket.

Posted by Karen L on Jul 1, 2021

Mystery that's killer diller

Cover of Fortune Favors the Dead
A review of Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood

Mystery devotees could long argue over what period represented the peak era of American noir/mystery writing, but it’s likely all would agree that the 1940s would be high on everyone’s list. With such luminaries as Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and Dorothy Hughes established and up and comers Mickey Spillane and Jim Thompson making their mark in the pulp magazines, the culture of World War II America was ripe for literary inspiration.

Posted by Katie H on Jun 29, 2021

Cómo viven los árboles / How trees live

Cover of Árboles
A review of Árboles by Lemniscates

Este libro con dibujos magníficos explora las vidas de los árboles, perfecto para leer con un grupo interactivo o con niños de 2-5 años. Después de leerlo, vayan de paseo para ver los árboles en su barrio!

---------------------

This beautifully illustrated book explores the lives of trees, perfect for reading with an interactive group or with kids ages 2-5. After reading this book, go for a walk to see the trees in your neighborhood!

Posted by Holly S-P on Jun 25, 2021

Fate of empires

Cover of The Jasmine Throne
A review of The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

In the first book of what will be the Burning Kingdoms trilogy Tasha Suri takes the reader into a intricately built and richly detailed fantasy world based on the history and epics of India. She centers her story of empires and colonialism on two strong young women who find that their "destinies [will] become irrevocably tangled".

Posted by Jane J on Jun 24, 2021

Loving art so much that you want to see it change for the better

Cover of This Is What I Know About
A review of This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew

This little guide starts out as the career story of a young black art history major from private liberal arts women's college Smith. Kimberly Drew navigates academic coursework with part-time jobs, internships and gallery opportunities while also creating, curating and providing content for a contemporary black art blog on Tumblr. She was at work at a new job as an assistant at a privately owned art gallery for ten days when Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island and when about three weeks later Michael Brown was fatally shot in Ferguson, Missouri. 

Posted by Molly W on Jun 23, 2021

Adventures in math

Cover of What Will Fit
A review of What Will Fit by Grace Lin

Part of a phenomenal new series of board and picture books, Storytelling Math, What Will Fit follows a little girl at a Farmer’s Market as she looks for the perfect item to fit into her basket. She tries a beet (too small), a zucchini (too tall), and a few other items before finding something that fits perfectly. This installment of the series focuses on spatial sense. Others focus on early geometry, patterns, and other math concepts.

Posted by Karen L on Jun 22, 2021

Memoirs in essays

Cover of New Memoir Suggestions
New Memoir Suggestions

The following article in Booklist caught my eye: "Trend Alert: Memoirs in Essays".  A memoir in essay is a "book-length collection of linked essays, centered on an author's self or life" according to this article from LitHub (which also has some good title suggestions). So I decided to do some more exploring. Below are some books from the article as well as other titles that I discovered along the way.

Posted by Kathy K on Jun 21, 2021

A different sort of World War II story

Cover of Clark and Division
A review of Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

After the hellish experience of the past few years, Aki Ito finally feels like it might be possible to be happy again. She and her parents are about to leave Manzanar, the California desert internment camp into which her family and other Japanese-Americans were forced by the government following Pearl Harbor, for an unfamiliar Chicago neighborhood the government has deemed acceptable for ‘resettlement’.

Posted by Katie H on Jun 18, 2021

Pages

Subscribe to MADreads