CCBC Weekly Book Reviews
Bitter
Bitter, who is Black, spent much of her childhood in foster care. Now she’s at Eucalyptus, a residential school for young artists run by the regal and mysterious Miss Virtue.
October 3, 2022
The Last Mapmaker
In a society where status comes from how far back one can trace the generations of their family, Sai has only a father who’s a thief.
September 26, 2022
Breathe and Count Back from Ten
Veró’s immigrant family came to the United States from Peru years ago seeking opportunities for Veró and her younger sister, and better treatment options for Veró’s hip dysplasia.
September 19, 2022
Firsts & Lasts: The Changing Seasons
This imaginative approach to describing the four seasons (in some regions) captures the overlapping traits that are inevitable between one season and the next.
September 12, 2022
Ain’t Burned All the Bright
A singular verse novel set across a series of moments and minutes on a day in the summer of 2020 is comprised of three sentences, three “Breaths,” sharply observed and deeply felt, set against sophisticated collage illustrations.
September 6, 2022
How to Build a Human In Seven Evolutionary Steps
This entertaining, informative, accessible account about human evolution starts with an explanation of natural selection and returns to it throughout as it touches on major milestones in the evolution of hominins, including which traits, behaviors, and skills allowed them—us—to continue to survive and evolve.
August 29, 2022
The Turtle of Michigan
In this kindhearted, stand-alone companion to The Turtle of Oman, eight-year-old Aref moves from Oman to Ann Arbor, Michigan, so his parents can attend graduate school. The start of their three-year stay is buoyed by welcoming new neighbors and a summer art class that helps ease Aref’s transition.
August 22, 2022
The Legend of Gravity
“He leaped so high that he looked like he was never coming down, like he defied gravity or something.” The new kid at the neighborhood basketball court doesn’t have a nickname, but his skills quickly earn him one.
August 15, 2022
Ironhead, or Once a Young Lady
Stance, 18, lives in Ghent in 1808. She’s always looking for experiences more interesting than what her fate as a woman seems to hold. Her brother Pier, 14, who wants to be a scholar, is dismayed by his older sister’s boldness and defiance.
August 8, 2022
A Song Called Home
Lou and older sister Casey’s mom is about to marry Steve, an unwelcome change that means they’ll be moving from San Francisco to the suburbs, enrolling in new schools, and living far from friends.
August 1, 2022
Olu & Greta
Olu lives near Lagos, in Nigeria; Greta lives in Milan, in Italy. The two children (both Black) are cousins. “They have never met each other in person! How would they?”
July 25, 2022
The Silence That Binds Us
The seemingly out-of-the-blue suicide of May’s older brother, basketball star and Princeton-bound Danny, just before graduation sends her Chinese American family into an downward emotional spiral.
July 18, 2022
Caprice
Twelve-year-old Caprice, Black, is back in Newark after attending a summer program at Ainsley International School in upstate New York.
July 11, 2022
The Treasure Box
In her secret treasure box, a girl with brown skin collects special found items: a particularly smooth, round rock; a papery snakeskin; a large feather; a bird’s nest. She delights in sharing these items with her white grandfather when he visits.
July 5, 2022
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Lou (Métis/white) is spending the summer before college working at her family’s ice cream stand in her Canadian prairie town. After her mom leaves to sell beadwork on the powwow circuit, Lou’s biological father–the white man who raped Lou’s mom when she was 16–lets Lou know he’s out of prison and demands to meet her.
June 27, 2022- More Books of the Week