“Big chicas don’t cry” Annette Chavez Macias

Rated 5 stars ***** ebook. Montlake. 2022.

Mari, Gracie, Selena, and Erica are cousins and best friends. They and their huge Mexican American family always get together for holidays, card games, and the annual making of Christmas tamales. Everyone talks English, Spanish, Spanglish, as well as the languages of hugs and love. When they get together the cousins bounce ideas, hurts, experiences, and romantic escapades off each other while Welita, their great-grandmother, is the glue that holds everyone together. She wants them to be happy, and to remember the importance of family. They had promised to always be there for each other but, when Mari’s parents got divorced and she moved away, things changed. She stopped coming around and, as the years passed, never made time for them. Though everyone missed her, their anger made their hackles rise whenever her name was mentioned.

In a back-and-forth narrative each cousin talks about their lives, and the love they feel for Welita and their family. It will take a tragedy to make sense of their own lives, and for the girls to understand what Welita has been telling them.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down and stopped every now and then only to wipe my tears away. The love and support for family that pours off the pages are extremely realistic and will leave readers sighing at the end wanting to continue their stories. Will there be a part two? I don’t know, but I would love it!

Highly recommended for Adults.

“Strangers we know” Elle Marr

Rated 5 stars ***** ebook. Thomas & Mercer. 2022.

Thirty-year-old Ivy was adopted when she was just a few days old and has recently developed a mysterious illness. Both of her adoptive parents dead and she has no information about her birth family’s health history, so submits her DNA to be analyzed. Before she receives the results letting her know she has a cousin, an FBI agent tells her she is related to a serial killer in Washington State who kills during a full moon and asks her to figure out who in her birth family is the murderer.

When Ivy is invited to meet her cousin and extended family, she’s nervous because she also wants to learn about her birth mother. Instead of a possible reunion she learns her mother fell to the serial killer shortly after she was born. She is equally horrified when she finds out many family members belong to a cult. As Ivy seeks out more information about her mother and the murderer, she doesn’t realize that as she gets closer to the truth, the serial killer is getting closer to her. He’ll make sure the upcoming full moon finds him doing what he loves to do best.

This book had me turning pages late into the night, as I couldn’t put it down until I reached its thrilling conclusion. I’m sure you’ll be equally as enthralled.

Recommended for Adults.

“Top story” Kelly Yang

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Scholastic Press (Scholastic). Front Desk #5. To be published September 5, 2023.

Mia and Lupe are spending Christmas break in San Francisco’s Chinatown for writing bootcamp and a math competition. When Jason and Hank join them because the cook at their hotel quit, Mia’s cup is full. As she learns about Chinatown’s history and the racist laws passed against the Chinese over the years, Mia is outraged. Sharing about their people’s struggles are the types of articles she and the other two kids of color want to write about, but their stories are ignored in favor of the rich kids in their group. As Mia’s eyes are opened to these injustices, she and her friends work together to tackle grown-up problems with grown-up solutions.

While Mia and her new friends figure out how to keep their writing dreams alive, she’s hampered by feelings for Jason she doesn’t want to reveal. Jealousy rears its ugly head over his infatuation with a local girl, but Lupe’s decision to enter college early is especially unsettling. How will she make it through high school without her best friend by her side?

Highly recommended for ages 11-14.

I received a digital advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Key player” Kelly Yang

Rated 5 stars ***** Scholastic Press (Scholastic). Front Desk #4. 274 p. (Includes “Author’s note”). 2022.

Mia is thrilled to have a chance to attend journalism camp but, to do so, she needs all A’s. Unfortunately, she’s awful at soccer so, when she gets a low grade in PE, she offers to raise it by interviewing either the Chinese women’s soccer team or the American team who are coming to California for the World Cup. Mia has no idea how she’s going to accomplish this feat, but nothing is going to stop her from going to journalism camp.

While Mia struggles, her parents and friends are having their own issues. Lupe is burdened with Math competitions and a team coach who doesn’t want to coach. Jason is crushed because his father constantly criticizes him. Hank is trying to expand his hamburger business, while Mia’s parents desperately search for a house.

Everyone in Mia’s life has an issue, but their love for each other and strength of character combine to show readers there’s nothing they can’t accomplish if they put their minds to it.

Highly recommended for ages 12-14.

“The wind knows my name” Isabel Allende

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Ballantine Books (Random House). To be published June 6, 2023.

In 2019 a police officer in El Salvador shot Marisol, who fled with her seven-year-old, blind daughter Anita knowing he would kill her if she stayed. After a difficult trip to the United States, she and Anita were forcibly separated at the border, and she was deported. Selena, a Latina social worker, took a personal interest in Anita. Though she had been trying for years to reunite separated children it had proven difficult because the U.S. didn’t keep good records of where children were sent. She was determined to find Anita’s mother.

In 1938 six-year-old Samuel was a violin prodigy in Vienna, but everything changed on Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass. That night his father was beaten and sent to a concentration camp, and his mother put him on a kindertransport to England thinking it would be a short separation. A few years later Samuel found out his parents, grandmother and aunt had all been murdered in the concentration camps. As the years passed music was the only thing that kept him going. The day he met Anita, everything changed.

Anita, Samuel, Selena, and others tell their interwoven stories which recount how separation from their parents affects children, but also splices in the poverty and murders migrants are forced to flee on their desperate journeys to the United States. “The wind knows my name” educates, saddens, but also gives hope.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“A scatter of light” Malinda Lo

Rated 4 stars **** ARC. ebook. Dutton Books. Published October 2022.

Eighteen-year-old Aria was supposed to be hanging out on Martha’s Vineyard with her two best friends for their last summer before college. Instead, her invitation was rescinded, and she was banished to her grandmother’s house in California for something that wasn’t her fault. Aria expects to be bored out of her mind but soon finds herself attracted to Steph, her grandmother’s gardener.

Though Aria had been with guys before, she’d never felt anything emotional with them. However, the more time she spent with Steph, the more she felt as if they were two halves of a whole. Throughout the summer she, Steph and her Queer friends had movie nights, attended concerts, and hung out. While realizing she was in love with Steph, wasn’t Straight, and working out what all that meant, Aria also had to face the fact that she was only in California for the summer and Steph already had a girlfriend. Would this be the best summer of her life, or the worst?

Malinda Lo writes convincingly of what it feels like to make an important, life changing self-discovery. Though I liked the book I thought the transitions were too abrupt. One minute Aria is doing something, or thinking about something, and in the very next paragraph she’s moved on to something completely different or is in a different day. Sometimes I had to go back and reread to make sure I hadn’t missed anything (I hadn’t.) I’ll still recommend it for my readers, as it contains helpful information for anyone wondering about their own feelings for either the opposite or the same sex.

Recommended for ages 18 and older.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Last night at the Telegraph Club” Malinda Lo

Rated 5 stars ***** Dutton Books (Penguin Random House). 2021.415 p. (Includes “Author’s note,” “Select bibliography,” and “Discussion guide.”)

In the 1950’s of San Francisco’s Chinatown, Lily Hu had always been a good Chinese girl. Though the girls in her neighborhood knew their futures involved husbands and children, Lily dreamed of flying a rocket ship while her fellow classmate, Kath Miller, wanted to fly airplanes. Lily felt different around Kath. She felt heard and seen, and something about Kath made her heart beat faster.

When Kath invited her to the Telegraph Club, Lily discovered a new world. There women impersonated men and held hands with other women. She and Kath were thrilled by their newfound feelings for each other, but Lily knew that outside of the club she could never let anyone know about them. The FB had revoked her father’s citizenship papers for not calling someone a communist, while homosexuality was against the law. She had to be careful not to get her father in trouble, but trouble has a way of showing up uninvited.

During Lily’s last year of high school Malinda Lo masterfully tackled how Chinese Americans were treated in the United States, the struggles of the Lesbian community, communism and more. Each issue was brought to life in a thorough way, and it’s easy to see why this book won the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature as well as the Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers Honor Awards.

Highly recommended for ages 17 and older.

“Only the beautiful” Susan Meissner

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Berkley (Penguin Random House). To be published April 18, 2023.

In 1938 sixteen-year-old Rosie lived on a vineyard with her parents and little brother. Her secret of seeing colors in her mind whenever she heard sounds was safe with them, until they were all killed in an accident, and she became an orphan. With nowhere to go she began working as a maid for the couple who owned the vineyard. At first things went well but, when she became pregnant against her will, she was sent to a mental institution instead of a home for unwed mothers. At the institution she was forced to endure painful shock therapy and was sterilized after the birth of her child. Rosie felt as if her life was over when her daughter and ability to have children was taken away but vowed to one day create a new life for herself.

Interspersed with Rosie’s story is that of Helen who worked as a nanny in Vienna for a family with an eight-year-old handicapped daughter during World War II. When the child was killed in a Nazi euthanasia program Helen vowed to protect other handicapped children from sharing the same fate.

Through flashbacks and the present time Rosie tells readers about what it was like to live with synesthesia, while Helen enlightens us about the Nazi Euthanasia Program, the murder of thousands of children and adults with disabilities. This book will stay with readers for a long time after the last page is turned, especially about the fact that sterilization of “undesirables” was legal in the United States up until the 1970’s. It will also make a great book club book.

Highly recommended for adults.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Before we were innocent” Ella Berman

Rated 4 stars **** ARC. ebook. Berkley (Penguin Random House). To be published April 4, 2023.

Evangeline and Joni had been friends for years before Bess moved to their neighborhood. Their high school was full of kids who accepted their parent’s wealth and McMansions as due to them, which was a huge learning curve for Bess who hadn’t come from money. Their acceptance allowed her to fit in, and they soon became inseparable. Shortly after graduation Ev’s parents offered her a trip to Greece to stay at the family estate before they left for college, so she invited Bess and Joni. Little did Bess know the summer of 2008 would turn into a nightmare when, shortly before they were to return, she and Joni were accused of murdering Ev.

Because of what happened in Greece Bess refused to go to college and spent the next ten years blaming herself for Ev’s death. She walled herself off in the desert, working from home so she could have minimal human interactions. When Joni knocked on her door one night and asked her for an alibi because her fiancée had disappeared, Bess was drawn back into the summer of 2008. Through flashbacks and the present time, what really happened in Greece and how it ties into Joni’s sudden appearance is slowly revealed.

The emphasis here is on “slowly revealed,” as I think the events of 2008 and 2018 could have been less drawn out. However, it was an interesting storyline, full of complicated twists and ponderings of the heart, so I will recommend it for adults.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Finally seen” Kelly Yang

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. To be published February 28, 2023.

Lina Gao lived with her grandparents in China, mocked by fellow students, because her parents went to America with her little sister five years earlier and left her behind. When her time finally came to go to California, she was excited to finally get to experience the wonderful American life they had been writing about in their letters. Once there she found her poor English was embarrassing, her little sister was better than her at everything, and her father worked long hours as an underpaid farmer. They lived in a cramped apartment, and her mother was trying to start up a business because they desperately needed to raise thousands of dollars in back rent so they wouldn’t get evicted. This was not the American life she thought she’d find.

Starting fifth grade in a new school was hard enough but doing so with kids who laughed at her English was too much for Lina. After her bumbling words embarrassed her yet again, she decided to keep her mouth sewed tight and never speak again. However, with the help of her teachers, the school librarian, and the words in books, Lina learned that words hold power, and she has the power to make a difference with her own words.

I loved how Kelly Yang wove Rudine Sims Bishop’s philosophy of books as “mirrors” (to show readers their own experiences), and “sliding glass doors” (to show readers not in the mirror what others feel) into the storyline. Young readers will be sure to see “Finally seen” either as their own mirror or sliding glass door.

Highly recommended for ages 10-14.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review