The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 | The diversity of this book is that it redefines disability.

My Thoughts:

Through the trials and tribulations of Delia, the protagonist, Toney tells a semi autobiographical story around how menstruation is a disability for some females that is not recognized by doctors, schools, employers, other females. 

Not only does Delia's life implode very quickly because of her period, but we get to see that this is not the first very public implosion caused by her period. The whole story seems to focus on her during her menstrual cycle, and her period seems to be a constant "flow." 

Although it takes over 8 doctors and a car crash to finally diagnose her endometriosis, along the way, she does have a lot of positives in her life, including a new love and a renewed childhood friendship, so it is not just about the bleeding on Tuesday and all the other days. It is also about hope, determination, love, and awareness. Ms. Toney does a good job of including the many gifts that Delia has in her life and within her, but the bleeding issue does take center stage, as it should.

At first, I felt like this was sooo dramatic, however, I have had debilitating periods in my time, and just luckily had a young OB/GYN who had a diagnosis and cure that was not as drastic as a full hysterectomy. If I had this problem when I was in middle and high school, and not after I had my children, I would be very dramatic too. I just forgot what this felt like, and this book helped me to remember and empathize with Delia. Delia really does have a disability. After all, how can someone with an over 4.0 GPA not be able to graduate on time because she has too many absences? How can a medical issue not be excused because the doctor did not diagnose anything? Or, even when her friend has a known condition, IBS - irritable bowel syndrome, the school still does not let her graduate on time and makes her finish in the summer because she needed to stay home and went over her allowed absences?  

On the website We Need Diverse Books, a non profit organization with a mission to get diverse books into the hands of young readers, they use a broad definition of disabilities in their statement around what they mean by diverse books.

"We subscribe to a broad definition of disability, which includes but is not limited to physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental illnesses (this may also include addiction). Furthermore, we subscribe to a social model of disability, which presents disability as created by barriers in the social environment, due to lack of equal access, stereotyping, and other forms of marginalization."

This book hits multiple points of this definition of disability. In addition, it challenges the social barriers that we put up in schools and work places when we force females to ignore this disability or "tough it out," in order to gain equitable opportunities for advancement or learning.  This book is a good POV reminder for us as educators to have some empathy for individual students and be cognizant about what it means to be gifts-centered rather than focus on deficits. 

Side note: I also listened to the audiobook read by Mara Wilson and it is well done. 

From the Publisher:

High school senior Delia Bridges has the most amazing mom and sister, a killer GPA--and periods that are so painful they make her scream, pass out, and throw up. Though she doesn't know it yet, Delia has endometriosis, an affliction plaguing millions of people that is notoriously difficult to diagnose.

Pain makes everything harder, but Delia is just one semester away from graduating from Stockwood Prep and pursuing her dream of becoming the kind of doctor she's never had: one who takes her symptoms seriously. But when she breaks a rule for the first time ever and is caught using marijuana at school to manage her pain, Delia is expelled.

Her expulsion jeopardizes her college acceptance, her planned mentorship, and everything she had carefully planned for years. Without her academic success and no closer to a diagnosis, is Delia anything more than her period?

Publication Information:

• Author: Kelsey B. Toney
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: June 17, 2025
• Print Length: 304 pages
• Grade level: 7- 9
• Audiobook Narrator: Mara Wilson
• Audiobook Publisher: Listening Library
• Listening Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Huda F Wants to Know? A Graphic Novel

 Stars: Like her other Huda F graphic novels, this is a 4 stars on voice and humor of the character. It is a very middle school voice. 

My Thoughts:

The character Huda F is a memorable voice in graphic novels, similar to middle school characters from Jin Wang from American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang and the characters from Jerry Craft’s New Kid series. Huda is also similar in self involved angst to Sherman Alexie’s character Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 

In this book, Huda finds out that her very Muslim parents are getting a divorce, and her junior year in high school starts imploding. Everything starts to tank, including her grades, her relationships with her friends and her mental health. Although there is a young female counselor in church, Huda refuses to accept that she needs help until her mom finally sends her to the counselor. 

The back of the book includes mental health resources for readers. This book continues to focus on getting rid of the stigma of getting mental health services, especially for communities of color. 

From the Publisher:

Huda Fahmy is ready for junior year. She’s got a plan to join all the clubs, volunteer everywhere, ace the ACTs, write the most awe-inspiring essay for her scholarship applications. Easy.

But then Mama and Baba announce the most unthinkable news: they’re getting a divorce. 

Huda is devastated. She worries about what this will mean for her family, their place in the Muslim community, and her future. Her grades start tanking, she has a big fight with her best friend, and everything feels out of control. Will her life ever feel normal again? Huda F wants to know.

Publication Information:

Author: Huda Fahmy

Publisher: Dial Books (April 1, 2025)

Length: 224 pages

Only This Beautiful Moment

 

Stars: 5  This has the potential to be a literature circle option

My Thoughts: 

This may be the template that Randy Ribay used for his own intergenerational trauma and love note book Everything We Never Had. Like Everything, this is about three generations of males in one family. They also share each person's story as a young man, but they do intersect in each otherʻs family as the grandson, the son/father, and Baba. 

This one holds so many secrets and so many cultural and historical barriers for this family, both in America and in Tehran that it feels like a documentary of one family with the backdrop of old Hollywood and 1970s Tehran. 

In the classroom:

If using this in the classroom for a literature circle, pair this with Everything. In addition,  add something in multiple voices that are also a reflection of the historical reality in which it is set even if it does not span generations by using Traci Chee's We Are Not Free and Nick Brook's Promise Boys. Promise is the only one set solely in a fictional time and place. It is also a murder mystery with lots of voices so it allows you as the teacher to differentiate the content while still keeping the same student learning objectives for each group (SLOs). Just some food for thought. 

From the Publisher:

2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself.

1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse—he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed.

1939. Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he’s thrust into has a dark side.

Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.

Publication Information:

Author: Abdi Nezemian

Publisher: Harper Collins (May 9, 2023)

Print length: 398 pages

The Other Side of Tomorrow, Graphic Novel

 

Stars: 5 for beautiful illustrations and a story that is not familiar to American YA and middle grade readers (yet). The last star for a 5 is in the ability to use this in your English or social studies classroom as a learning resource. 

My Thoughts:

The marketers say this book is similar to Illegal  and When Stars are Scattered which are both about harrowing immigration stories. Besides the topic of migration, these are all graphic novels told from the point of view of young people who are searching for families and/or searching for better lives. In addition, the three of these are atypical in that they are not coming from Central or South America.

In this case, the story is told by two narrators, Yunho, whose mother escaped to China and Myunghee. The two are seen separately at first as they care for an elder, but they soon start traveling together to escape from North Korea. 

Yunho does eventually find his mother, and the three of them stick together, but the ups and downs in this graphic novel are just stressful. Just when things seem to be looking up, and even when they are in other countries, horrible things happen. 

Like the other books, the historical (maybe contemporary) non fiction in this will help students get interested in researching more. The other aspect of this particular graphic novel is the striking artwork. Artwork is its own form of text. If teachers want to learn more about that, check my post on the picture book Where Butterflies Fill the Sky. There is a link to learn more about enhancing literary engagement though pictures and graphics using the peritextual literacy framework.

Finally, the graphics are so stunning because they are by Deb J.J. Lee. If you have not read Lee's graphic memoir, In Limbo, well you must. Their tone comes through in their use of light and dark shades, white and black spaces. All of that skill is brought to this graphic novel too which is why it is so stunning. I did not even realize that this is a graphic novel in verse because the pictures tell the story first and then I read the words.

From the Publisher:

Perfect for fans of Illegal and When Stars Are Scattered, this poignant and moving graphic novel in verse captures the dangers and hope that come with fleeing North Korea and reaching for a brighter future through the lives of Yunho and Myunghee.

From never knowing where they’ll find their next meal to avoiding soldiers lurking at every corner, many North Koreans have learned that sticking around can be just as deadly as attempting to flee . . . almost. 

Both shy, resourceful Yunho and fierce, vibrant Myunghee know this. So when they each resolve to run away from the bleak futures they face, it’s with the knowledge that they could be facing a fate worse than death.

While Yunho hopes to reunite with his omma, who snuck across the border years ago, Myunghee is reaching for dreams that are bigger than anything the regime would allow her to have. The two are strangers to each other until a chance encounter unwittingly intertwines their fates and Myunghee saves Yunho’s life.

Kept together by their dreams for a brighter future, they face a road plagued by poisonous jungle snakes, corrupt soldiers, and the daily fear of discovery and imprisonment. But with every step toward freedom, there is also hope. Will it be enough for both of them to make it to safety without losing each other along the way?

Publication Information:

Author: Tina Cho

Illustrator: Deb JJ Lee

Publisher: HarperAlley (November 12, 2024)

Paperback: 224 pages

Grades: 3-7

Everything We Never Had

 Stars: 5 like his other YA book Patron Saints of Nothing, this one should be in the classrooms. 

My Thoughts:

Like Patron Saints, Ribay gives us another deeply complex look at family, toxic masculinity, and the Filipino iexperience in America through the Maghabol males. 

With multiple narrators, we see the four Maghabol males as young men and as fathers and grandfathers in each other's stories. As narrators to their own stories, they don't understand the motives and intention of their fathers, however, this was a satisfyingly sorrowful read for me. I found myself waking up to read more because I wanted Enzo to talk to his lolo Emil and share things that Enzo's dad Chris never knew/understood, or even wanted to hear. I wanted Francisco to find some kind of happiness and success that I knew must have happened through Emil's story, but we don't see the in between times. We just know from the other stories. I love that strategy. As a reader, it helps me to stay fully engaged, which is why there is so much to do with this book in the English classroom. 

From the Publisher: 

Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.

Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.

Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.

Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.

Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.

Publication Information:

Author: Randy Ribay

Publisher: Kokila (August 27, 2024)

Hardcover: 288 pages

ISBN-13: 978-0593461419

Grade level: 7-9

Icon and Inferno (Stars and Smoke #2)

 

Stars: 4 Unexpectedly good action and chemistry in this second novel

My Thoughts:

The first book, Stars and Smoke , is actually a good stand alone, but like Ms. Lu’s second Warcross book, Wildcard, this second book surprised me in how much more the author could add to this story. The additional characters made this more believable. In addition, the shocking loss put this out of the realm of YA bubblegum romance and into the realm of spy intrigue and loss. I actually liked this more than the first book, even if you need to read the first book to get a feel for the characters. 

From the Publisher:

A year has passed since superstar Winter Young last saw secret agent Sydney Cossette. After barely surviving their first assignment together in London -- and their intense chemistry – the two haven’t spoken at all. Though they’re never far from the other’s thoughts, or fantasies.

So when Syndey shows up at Winter’s studio one day with a new mission from Panacea, he has no choice but to accept. With the clock ticking, the duo prepares to head to Singapore to rescue an operative in danger -- only to learn he’s none other than Sydney's ex, a rogue agent known as the Arsonist.

Of course, nothing is ever simple when it comes to Winter and Sydney. Especially not with the glamorous Gavi Ginsburg, a globe-trotting socialite and Winter’s one-time girlfriend, in the mix. Is she back for Winter’s heart – or does she have her eye on another prize?

The smoldering sequel to New York Times-bestselling Stars and Smoke follows Winter and Sydney on yet another treacherous mission that grows more sinister with each twist and turn. To make it out alive, they'll have to figure out how to be partners again -- and if they can resist the burn of something more.

Publication Information:

Author: Marie Lu

Publisher: Roaring Books Press (June 11, 2024)

Hardcover: 320 pages

Grade level: 10-12

Our Violent Ends (These Violent Delights Duet, book 2)

 

Stars: 5 Yes, use this as an alternative to R&J in your classroom. If you really must talk about iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme, use several of Shakespeare's sonnets and leave the action/drama/romance of R&J to Ms. Gong. 

My Thoughts:

   DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST BOOK!!!

These Violent Delights, series Book 1, Audiobook

 

Stars: 5 The difference between a 4 star and a 5 star is that a 5 star can be used in the classroom. 

My Thoughts:

Shanghai in 1926. The gangs, one Chinese, and one Russian rule Shanghai. But there is a blood feud between the Scarlets and the White Flowers and there was a hidden teen romance between the two heirs to the Scarlets (Juliette Cai) and the heir to the White Flowers, Roma Montagov. Yes, this is a Romeo and Juliet combined with a Romeo + Juliet gangster vibe. If the two "kids" broke up because of family pressure and came back together to fight a strange "monster" that spreads bugs that makes people kill themselves by ripping their throats out, then this is the story.

Juliette is back in Shanghai ready to take over the family business when she runs into her first love and her greatest enemy in Roma. But with the monster killing gangsters and business people on both sides of the blood feud, as well as the rising Communist disruptors, the two teens need to put their feud aside to try and solve the mystery.

Juliette and Roma have the kind of chemistry that will break your heart. This would make a fabulous comparative literature conversation with students because what these young people have that the Shakespeare version does not have is a sense of filial piety that becomes a real barrier to their work together. These teens are not free to do whatever they want, so it actually feels more authentic and heartbreaking. 

From the Publisher: 

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is 18-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang - a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette's first love...and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns - and grudges - aside and work together, for if they can't stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Publication Information:

Author: Chloe Gong

Narrator: Cindy Kay

Publisher: Tantor Audio (January 26, 2021)

Length: 14 hours 14 minutes

Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a Graphic Novel Adaptation

 

My Thoughts:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a dystopian adult novel about a father and his son who are in a post apocalyptic world where they are trying to survive, stay away from hordes of Zombie-like gangs and not die in the process. This novel was so difficult to get through and so disturbing that I talked my husband into reading the book with me. He tried and then refused to finish it. I was disturbed by the struggle. I almost with there were Zombies as they would be less scary than gangs of desperate and starving human beings. For my husband, he could not get over McCarthy's writing style. His big beef was on the author's use of 50 words in a sentence to say something that could be written much simpler with the same effect. It was just too wordy for him and this road was dragging on too long so he abandoned it.  I slogged through because I needed to get to the end of the road, or death, or whatever came first, but I was not having fun slogging through. I also want to say that Cormac McCarthy died last summer (June 2023) at 89, so I am not trying to speak ill of this American author who has garnered multiple writing awards, however, his outlook on America and humanity is dark, dark, dark, so I am not saying anything new. 

What I wanted to focus on is not the tone of his story, but on the issue my husband has, which is McCarthy's prose style which is just difficult to read. He does not write for the common man/woman. He does not have much wit to him. His vocabulary tends to be pedantic. So if you take away the prose and stick with the tone and premise of a father and son trying to get to the coast in a post apocalyptic world, as readers we are faced with a more familiar story of survival and the ability of the young son to keep his humanity while the father tries to protect him from seeing the horrors that will stick in his memory. 

Manu Larcenet does a fabulous job of keeping the feeling of cold, hunger and sorrow within his illustrations. He does not need a lot of words to tell this story. However, the conversations that he does include in the book gives us just enough horror and hope. Job well done! The Road in this adaptation is just as haunting as the original, but I would use this adaptation over the original for a literature group choice if we are looking at dystopia or post apocalyptic pieces caused by climate change, natural disasters, or man made disasters.

Suggestions for Curriculum and Classroom Use:

Thematic Currents:

• Death in a Dying World
• Humanity and Ethics
• Philosophy of Survival
• Parent/Child or Father/Son relationships
• Survival

Activity:

• Literature workshop on dystopia - if you are not sure how to do a literature workshop in a secondary classroom, this blog post is not enough time to go over it. I would need a whole semester of an English methods course to even introduce it, however, Sheridan Blau has a great book called The Literature Workshop by Heinemann Publishers. Check that out and choose something to try. I trust this publisher as they print books by teacher practitioners rather than education scholars who have not set foot in a K-12 classroom in many years. Chapter 2 is about the power of rereading. Although they use a poem, imaging doing a rereading of some key scenes of this graphic novel so that students "read" the illustrations and sparse text to have students go through the process and also record their understanding as they reread

• Other books that can be paired with this graphic novel:
• Life as We Knew It series by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Hiroshima by John Hersey
• Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakagawa (graphic by an atomic bomb survivor)

Publication Information:

Illustrator: Manu Larcenet

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts (September 17, 2024)

Hardcover: 160 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1419776779

Reading Age: 13 years and up

Promise Boys

 

From the Publisher:

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Find out who killed Principal Moore in Nick Brooks's murder mystery, Promise Boys―The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying.

My Thoughts:

I got this book from NCTE a couple of years ago and I tied to read it several times. It's a mystery, the principal is killed and of course three boys who have their own stories of hardship and pain are accused. But I could not finish this book in the same way that I turned of Ava Duverney's Origin two minutes into it. I am teaching a course at the graduate level on social justice leadership and it is tiring. Doing social justice work is tiring too so I feel bad saying, hey, let's all be social justice leaders. 

This book gave me all the feels as to why even as social justice leaders we need to really check ourselves. That principal needed to die despite his accolades. The savior mentality, break them to make them attitude was just too much and I could not keep from hurting for these boys. I could not see it to the end. 

Publication Information:

Author: Nick Brooks

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (January 31, 2023)

Hardcover: 304 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1250866974

Grade level: 10-12

Saints of the Household

 

My Thoughts:

This debut YA novel by Indigenous Costa Rican author Ari Tison is complex in that it starts with the repercussions of violence not done to, but done by these two Bribri American brothers. The two brothers come upon a couple in the Minnesota woods and recognize the girl, Nicole, their Anishnabe "cousin," being grabbed forcefully by her boyfriend, white/Mexican soccer star Luca. The two brothers, Max and Jay without much conversation or questioning beat him up. The rest of the book is done in alternating chapters as Jay and Max come through some sort of healing and reflection on both the violence done to them by their father, as well as the violence they inflicted. Jay's chapters are written in prose vignettes. Max's chapters are written in spare free verse. 

The difficulty and therefore the brilliance in this book is that the words on paper reflect how the two boys shatter. The incident acts as a chasm between them that never really gets bridged. Each of them find their own individual semi- peace, but I don't think they see each other in the same way. Jay has Nicole and his grandfather to help him heal. Max has his art and a budding romance that he does not want to tell Jay about. Perhaps that is the most tragic aspect of this book is that they cannot rely on each other to heal. In fact, as the readers alternate between the two boys, how they "read" each other is so heartbreakingly wrong that it feels like their base is untenable. 

This book deserves whatever awards it is going to get. The heartbreak stayed with me long after I finished reading. I'm not going to talk about themes and activities in this post because I think this is my next Language arts methods class read for the summer. 

From the Publisher:

Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.

But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school's star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers' dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They'll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.

Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.

Publication Information:

Author: Ari Tison

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux (March 28, 2023)

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374389499

Grade level: 10-12

Funeral Girl: Audiobook

 

My Thoughts:

The premise of this book is intriguing if you were captured by the premise of the television show Pushing Daisies, a comedy-drama show (2007-2009) where a pastry chef with the power to bring dead people back to life solves murder mysteries with his resurrected childhood sweetheart. 

In Funeral Girl, Georgia Richter is able to awaken the spirit of the departed, find out what they want help with, then retouch them so that they go to some unknown place in the afterlife. 

Her parents run the Richter Funeral Home and she and her twin, in high school, help the family run the home, which is how she has access to the dead bodies. When her classmate Miloʻs body comes to the funeral home, he asks her not to send him anywhere, so Milo and Georgia spend the novel on a ethical, moral and spiritual journey to cope with grief, mortality, suffering, betrayal and forgiveness. Georgia learns that everyone is coping the best way they know how, and grief must be faced and felt.  

From the Publisher:

With one touch of any body that passes through Richter Funeral Home, Georgia Richter can awaken the spirit of the departed. With one more touch, she makes the spirit disappear to a fate that remains mysterious to her. To cope with her deep anxiety about death, she does her best to fulfill the final wishes of the deceased whose ghosts she briefly revives. 

Then her classmate Milo's body arrives at Richter—and his spirit wants help with unfinished business, forcing her to reckon with her relationship to grief and mortality.

Publication Information:

Author: Emma K. Ohland

Narrator: Jess Nahikian

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC (September 06, 2022)

An Echo in the City

 

From the Publisher:

Two star-crossed teenagers fall in love during the Hong Kong protests in this searing contemporary novel about coming-of-age in a time of change.
 
Sixteen-year-old Phoenix knows her parents have invested thousands of dollars to help her leave Hong Kong and get an elite Ivy League education. They think America means big status, big dreams, and big bank accounts. But Phoenix doesn’t want big; she just wants home. The trouble is, she doesn’t know where that is … until the Hong Kong protest movement unfolds, and she learns the city she’s come to love is in danger of disappearing.
 
Seventeen-year-old Kai sees himself as an artist, not a filial son, and certainly not a cop. But when his mother dies, he’s forced to leave Shanghai to reunite with his estranged father, a respected police officer, who’s already enrolled him in the Hong Kong police academy. Kai wants to hate his job, but instead, he finds himself craving his father’s approval. And when he accidentally swaps phones with Phoenix and discovers she’s part of a protest network, he finds a way to earn it: by infiltrating the group and reporting their plans back to the police.
 
As Kai and Phoenix join the struggle for the future of Hong Kong, a spark forms between them, pulling them together even as their two worlds try to force them apart. But when their relationship is built on secrets and deception, will they still love the person left behind when the lies fall away?

My Thoughts:

I usually post my thoughts before the publisher, but I wanted to switch it because the publisher makes a connection with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, (two star-crossed lovers. . .). So I was reading to see the connection. Was this a Hong Kong version of Westside Story where this is definitely a tragedy between historically feuding parties (Montagues and Capulets; Jets and Sharks)? Then there is the clever and equally hearbtreaking Angel and Hannah, a novel in verse by Ishle Yi Park: 

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, there is no double suicide, but there is more than death that can make this tragic, so perhaps the message here for young readers is really about the wide spaces between cultures and places. Perhaps this is about the residual effects of poverty, culture clashes and a crumbling social structure.

I think An Echo in the City is actually closer to Park's novel in verse but set in a Hong Kong where democracy is burning and China is looming like a dark cloud over the island. Kai and Phoenix are  in Hong Kong from different areas, Kai from China, Phoenix from North Carolina. So although they meet in the same cafe in Hong Kong,  their worlds are so different. Like Angel there is no double suicide, however, what makes this so relevant and superior to R&J is the very real conflict of filial piety. The two teenagers can rebel to a point, but they are also held to family expectations in a way that non Asian communities may never understand. Asian dreams are caught in the web of expectations that affect the whole family and the whole community. That is what is so tragic about this love story. The ending is both haunting and hopeful. 

Publication Information:

Author: K.X. Song

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (June 20, 2023)

Youngblood

 

My Thoughts:

There's conspiracy, there's Mean Girls Action, queer love, bullying, classism, Vampire(racism), secrets, lies, boarding life, high school drama and mystery. 

Don't let the cover turn you off. It really is much deeper than it seems. The conflicts are more complex than teen drama and bullying. Thereʻs a little bit of Harry Potter feel to it because the adults are also not as they outwardly seem. The social justice aspect gives it a nice twist. 

The main character, Kat, knows she is a vampire, but she has been raised with humans. She is able to kee her secret because unlike vampires of old, humans are suffering from a blood pandemic that can kill vampires so vampires have stopped feeding on humans. However, the Hema, a lab created blood substitute is expensive and Kat and her mom struggle to eat. The alternative is to buy Hema from the black market because she has already lost her dad who was starting and died during the plague from infected human blood. 

When Kat gets into the elite vampire school and an anonymous donor pays for everything, she thinks she is finally making a better life for herself and her mom. She is so wrong. 

From the Publisher:

Kat Finn and her mother can barely make ends meet living among humans. Like all vampires, they must drink Hema, an expensive synthetic blood substitute, to survive, as nearly all of humanity has been infected by a virus that’s fatal to vampires. Kat isn’t looking forward to an immortal life of barely scraping by, but when she learns she’s been accepted to the Harcote School, a prestigious prep school that’s secretly vampires-only, she knows her fortune is about to change.
 
Taylor Sanger has grown up in the wealthy vampire world, but she’s tired of its backward, conservative values—especially when it comes to sexuality, since she’s an out-and-proud lesbian. She only has to suffer through a two more years of Harcote before she’s free. But when she discovers her new roommate is Kat Finn, she’s horrified. Because she and Kat used to be best friends, a long time ago, and it didn’t end well.
 
When Taylor stumbles upon the dead body of a vampire, and Kat makes a shocking discovery in the school’s archives, the two realize that there are deep secrets at Harcote—secrets that link them to the most powerful figures in Vampirdom and to the synthetic blood they all rely on.

Publication Information:

Author: Sasha Laurens

Publisher: Raxorbill (July 19, 2022)

One of the Good Ones

 

My Thoughts:

In chapters that switch between narrators, as well as travels in a non linear fashion moving from before and after the arrest as well as a confluence of past family trauma and current grief, One of the Good Ones is a road trip between grief and healing. 18 year old Kezi is the golden child and activist. Happi is the disconnected youngest sister. When Kezi is killed while in police custody, older sister Genny drags happi and Kezi's best friends Ximena and Derek on a last road trip, planned by Kezi. They route has been planned by Kezi for months prior to her death using a copy of the Green Book that takes the four of them along Route 66 and Sun Down towns that were often deadly Black people in America.

Like all good road trips, this book is more about what each character learns about themselves and their connection to the road and each other than any final destination. It is both a social commentary and history reminder about growing up  black in America. 

This is not a newly published or pre published book. It actually came out in January of 2021, but it has been in my TBR pile long enough for me to forget the premise of this book. Perhaps the title or the cover did not catch my eye. However, there is an author's note about the title. If I had read it earlier, I would have moved it up on my pile. Here it is:

From Author Note:

We chose the title One of the Good Ones because it’s something that “well-intentioned” people say all the time without realizing how harmful it is. “One of the good ones” is usually code for a person our country deems worthy. That importance is usually tied to level of education, income, class, zip code, gender identity, and sexual orientation. If most or all of those acceptable boxes are checked, then we care… There is no allotment for who deserves justice and who does not. 

From the Publisher:

A shockingly powerful exploration of the lasting impact of prejudice and the indomitable spirit of sisterhood that will have readers questioning what it truly means to be an ally, from sister-writer duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, authors of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine.

ISN’T BEING HUMAN ENOUGH?

When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Perfect. Angelic.

One of the good ones.

Even as the phrase rings wrong in her mind—why are only certain people deemed worthy to be missed?—Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide. But there’s a twist to Kezi’s story that no one could’ve ever expected—one that will change everything all over again.

Publication information:

Authors: Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite

Publisher: Inkyard Press (January 5, 2021)