CCBC Weekly Book Reviews
Sunshine
Ben, a “what-if kid” with many worries and fears, is spending a week with his mother, who left him when he was three years old, in her off-the-grid cabin on a small island in northern Minnesota.
July 26, 2021
American Betiya
Indian American Rani Kelkar’s parents have always been clear: No dating in high school. She’s always respected that rule.
July 19, 2021
Watercress
When a girl’s parents spot watercress growing at the side of an Ohio road, they pull over the family car and show her and her brother how to gather it.
July 5, 2021
Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
Grimes focuses on women poets of the Harlem Renaissance to draw attention to these generally lesser known yet talented writers of that time, offering up a selection of poems that she in turns uses as inspiration for poems of her own.
June 28, 2021
Milo Imagines the World
Taking the subway to a destination unknown to the reader, Milo feels like “a shook-up soda.”
June 21, 2021
Meltdown: Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima
A gripping, well-researched account delves into the trifecta of catastrophes that occurred in Japan in March 2011: the magnitude-9 earthquake off the coast of the island of Honshu, the resulting tsunami, and the eventual meltdown of several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
June 14, 2021
365 Days to Alaska
Rigel, 11, who is white, lives with her family in the Alaskan bush. But when her parents announce they’re getting divorced, Rigel and her sisters move with their mom to “Outside”--their maternal grandmother’s in Connecticut.
June 7, 2021
Hear My Voice / Escucha mi voz
“My sister and I came from Honduras.” “Our grandfather saw the gang kill our neighbor. They threatened to kill him so we all had to leave.” There is not even enough room for the baby to crawl.” “I have been here without bathing for twenty-one days.”
June 1, 2021
Fire Keeper’s Daughter
Daunis, 18, has postponed attending the University of Michigan to stay in Sault Ste. Marie for her mother, who is reeling from the recent death of Daunis’s uncle and the failing health of Daunis’s grandmother--the wealthy white woman who wouldn’t allow Daunis’s Ojibwe father to be named on Daunis’s birth certificate.
May 24, 2021
I Dream of Popo
“I dream with Popo as she rocks me in her arms. She sings beibei xin, beibei gan. In my heart I hear: My baby, my heart. My baby, my love.”
May 17, 2021
Billy Miller Makes a Wish
On his eighth birthday, Billy Miller blows out the candles on his cake and makes a wish that something exciting would happen.
May 10, 2021
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
In 1954, high school senior Lily Hu is everything her parents expect her to be: studious, respectful, responsible, and she never ventures far from her close-knit Chinese American community in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
May 3, 2021
Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh = This Is How I Know: A Book about the Seasons
A contemporary Anishinaabe grandmother answers her grandchild’s questions about the four seasons by sharing observations about the natural world in this striking picture book.
April 26, 2021
Red, White, and Whole
Middle schooler Reha is the American-born daughter of parents from India; a beloved only child who often feels caught between her parents--especially her mother’s--more traditional expectations and her own American identity.
April 19, 2021- More Books of the Week