Superman, by Matt de la Pena

Book four in the DC Comics chapter book series, Superman being released this past March, I believe, and the first one written by a male author. I have read all four books, in the order they were released (although they are all stand-alone's, so read them in whatever order you wish!), and I'm not sure if it's because Wonder Woman was the first one or if it really IS the best one, but that set a high bar for the others, and none have been able to reach it yet. Like the others, Superman is the story of how Superman came to be. Not being a big super hero fan, I still found a lot of what was written in this book repetitive and very basic. De la Pena did use modern day racism issues as a way to create a main story plot for Clark Kent's coming of age, and a few of the minor characters wanted to be fully developed, but weren't. Unfortunately, I don't think this book hit the mark.

If this is the first book in this series that you read, please don't give up! Give Wonder Woman: Warbringer a chance and see if it doesn't knock your socks off!  As for Superman - not bad, but not great. I did finish it, so there's that...3 paws.

On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas

Book two from this fairly new author, and what a whopper it is! Thomas's first book being The Hate U Give, which I admit I was surprised at how quickly it was turned into a movie (which I can't go see...I tried passing as a service dog once, but it didn't go well...)! That book was good, too, and similar in style. Thomas writes realistic fiction very well, and creates believable characters and believable situations as well as anyone I have read. In fact, I would say she is a master at character development - her protagonist in Come Up, Bri Jackson, feels as much a real person as you or me (well, as you...). Her situation is believable and real, as is her language and imperfections.

Bri is a Black teenager living with her mom and brother in a rough part of town. She is trying to navigate the world around her while also dealing with the loss of her rap star father, all the while framing her own life and experiences in music as well. The language in this book is real and very strong, so if mature language bothers you, you might want to read Kwame Alexander or Walter Dean Myers for equally good stories with less mature language from their characters. I found that the strong language fit the situations the characters were dealing with perfectly, so even though there are a lot of "bad" words in this book, I never felt that Thomas was writing this into the story just to shock the reader - you and me! This is a really good story, and a great addition to what I still feel is an underrepresented segment of teen lit - that of non-White characters dealing with realistic lives in realistic ways.

On the Come Up ended with plenty of room for a sequel, and I ended the book wanting to know more about Bri's story...Thomas has already made her place on the shelf with some of the best teen writers, and her realistic fiction, her "street lit", as it is sometimes called, is as good as anything out there - read this! 5 paws!

The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

There are a number of reasons to be wary of my thoughts on this one...I usually read fantasy because I make myself do it - it isn't a genre I prefer but I know it's important to be a well-rounded reading pug, and I have read a few that I loved! This series has been around a for a few years, and I've always thought about reading it, but since it's an OBOB title this coming season, I thought it would be a good time to give it a go. So, not my favorite genre, reading it because it has been selected for OBOB, and it isn't terribly new and I haven't read it yet...all that said, I wish I could say I loved this, but...I didn't. A really clever idea behind the retelling of the fairy tale, and I believe it is still better written that Chris Colfer's Land of Stories books. I wanted to like it a lot, but it really jumped around way too much for me, and too many of the solutions to things seemed to be too easily created by Chainani just to move the story forward. Maybe I need to read it again - maybe I missed some things, some clever twists that went over my pug head? It's possible, as I watch other reviews of this book and series and they are usually pretty strongly in favor. I just didn't love love it. I liked it, I read the whole thing (over 400 pages) to see what happened in the end...but I don't think I'll read book two, nor am I likely to re-read this one to see if it was just me, or if the story was just okay.

Basically (and I mean very basically), this book takes Good and Evil and turns them on their heads!  I know it's popular (although not the most popular fantasy series in the library, by far), and it's probably better than I thought. If you read it, will you let me know what you thought, and if it blew you away, will you check in here and tell me how it did that for you? Until then, on to the next great reading adventure! 3 paws.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba

This is not a super new book, having come out in 2015 in its adult format, and even having been turned into a Netflix movie, I believe. This is the Young Readers edition, which often works well for me, as it includes all the pertinent information without the extra 200 pages. In this case, this was the perfect version to read - definitely enough to get the story, and any longer might have made me skip some of the pages or chapters.

The author's story of his life in Malawi, a country in southern Africa, is heartbreaking and amazing all at the same time. To be reminded that people in this world, in this day and age of technology and wealth and resources, live (and die) like this is...terrifying? Maddening? Hopeful? A mix of emotions reading this story, but WOW! if William isn't a brilliant, resilient young man. He overcomes obstacles that would squash many of us, I think - even one or two of his obstacles would have stopped me in my tracks. He perseveres, however, and the story has many happy endpoints!

If you like non-fiction and/or biographies, this one is powerful. It took me a long time to get in sync with the rhythm of William's voice, longer than usual, which made me almost skip some parts. I'm glad I didn't, but if you dive into this book, be patient - the story does come together into a satisfying second half, but you have to get past the quirky first half to reap that reward. 4 paws!

Ghost Boys, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

A very quick but very powerful read! This is the story of a 7th grade boy who is playing with a toy gun in his neighborhood and is shot by police who think his gun is real. However, there is much more to the story than that, and the more the layers unfold the further we are pulled into the deeply embedded racism that permeates our culture. Ghost Boys tells the story through a variety of lenses, including Jerome, the main character, his new-found friend, his sister, his grandmother, Emmett Till, the daughter of the police officer who shoots and kills him, the bullies at school...Rhodes really weaves a lot of the questions and emotions that an incident like this has on people, a community, and a nation, into a pretty concise story. Historical fiction in the sense that Rhodes brings in Till and other young black boys who have been shot and/or killed in our nation, and continue to be, as the racism our nation was built on continues to infest and infect who we are. I didn't always like the style Rhodes chose to write in, and for a few pages at the start I didn't know if I could continue with the book. But I did, and I'm glad I did, and I think you should, too. This is an important story, and we should all be thinking about it, discussing it, and figuring out together how to make things right. 5 paws!

The Heart of Everything That Is, adapted by Kate Waters

A very important book in our nation's history. This is the young adult (YA) version of the adult book with the same title, but different authors listed. This non-fiction book tells the story of Red Cloud, an Oglala Lakota Indian leader in the 1800 - 1900s, and the only Native American chief to defeat the American Army in war. The adult version of this book won a few awards, but this version has received mix reactions from reviewers. I enjoy non-fiction and I'm glad I now know much more about this monumental figure in American history, much taken from his recently discovered auto-biography. But this book is very hard to follow, even with my decent level of US history as background. I would recommend this to you if you want to study a Native American figure who is perhaps less well-known and written about than, say, Sacagawea or Chief Joseph, but I would also warn that this book, while telling an important story, is not an easy one to follow and thus lends itself to being a bit difficult to stay with. Perhaps you will try it and find a different result? If so, please let me know here...I'd love to discuss this story with you! 3 paws.