This is my review of the re-read of A child called IT. I picked this up because I felt it would break me out of my reading slump I’ve been in and I wanted to re-visit it. The below 👇🏾 short video is audio of my honest thoughts on this book. Let me know if you ever read this before?
Hey Kiddo is a graphic memoir about the author’s life growing up. He talks heavily about the absent of his mother and her being addicted to drugs. He was raised by his grandparents while his mother was in and out of his life.
Jarrett Krosoczka picked up a big talent and that was drawing, that all he wanted to do with his life was draw and paint and he was very good at it.
Throughout the story I felt all kinds of emotions for Jarrett and his situation. But in the end he remained strong and positive and didn’t fall down the same path as his mother. He had a dream of going to college and making something of himself, which he did.
This story is inspiring and encouraging and I enjoyed the positive ending, the artwork was cool as well.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story.
5⭐
CLICK HERE FOR SYNOPSIS FOR HEY KIDDO
Let me know if you read this graphic novel and what did you think of it?
Xoxo Nikki🤎
My Thoughts/Review:
I really enjoyed this. This story dives deep into family and what family can really be, also talks about sexuality. Melanin Sun aka Mel is a 13 year old boy living in Brooklyn NY with is mom who he is really close with. In the story Mel’s mom (EC) tells him that she is gay and this changes everything for Mel.
He wonders what his friends, his neighborhood, and even the girl that he likes will think of him. At this point Mel hates his mom for being gay and and wishes it wasn’t true.
Mel learnes that he can still be there for his mom even though she is gay he just will have to adjust which will take some time.
This story focused on the what family is and who your real friends are and just not caring what other people who really don’t matter have to say.
Mel enjoys writing in his notes books personal things and to help him get though all the new changes he writes.
Good story. I like that this was a challenging topic especially for teenagers.
Rating: 4.75⭐
Let me know if you read anything by Jacqueline Woodson 😉
Xoxo Nikki 🤎
Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.
Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age.
Book Review:
This won’t be a standard review like I normally write but more on my feelings towards the story.
Echo Brown has gone through so much, so much I can relate to. I feel Echo’s mother in the beginning just gave up and didn’t want to deal with life anymore. I felt upset with her mom because of what Echo had to go through at an very early age. But reading more into the story it makes sense.
I was upset to read that Echo was raped at a young age and she had to deal with this basically by herself. In the black community when it comes to sexual violations people in the community sweep it under the rug and it’s never to be dealt with. It’s one of those things as if saying “yeah it happened get over it” or “don’t say anything no body will believe you”
Echo had to be the strong one in the family while still trying to go to school and get into college. It was hard for her. I enjoyed the magical realism through the story especially during Echo’s younger years. It shows how young children see tough situations and it flowed well into the story nicely.
Reading about Echo’s life, there were times I didn’t want to stop reading. It was a real life well written memoir and now I want to read more from Echo Brown. I’m glad I chose this for black history month and for buzzwordathon. I’ll definitely be re reading this again soon.
Rating: 5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.
But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black t-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that he is funny and fierce. I learn that his eyes are Atlantic Ocean-blue and that his vice is stealing silverware. I learn that when I talk to him, my whole world opens up, and I feel myself starting to change—starting to want things. To want out of my bubble. To want everything, everything the world has to offer.
Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.
Review:
(Re Read December 2020)
I enjoyed re reading this book. I decided to re read this story because it show cases disability representation. I love how Maddie and Ollie are together it’s very cute. What I didn’t like is Maddie mom. Although she is a nurse she feels she can just diagnosed her daughter with anything. Maddie’s mom shows symptoms of munchausen by proxy and I felt this way the first time I read this. The only difference with Maddie’s mom and someone else with these symptoms, she really wanted to protect Maddie and not hurt her I don’t think her intentions were to hurt her but to help. Maddie’s mom wasted so much time trying to protect her rather then be there for her.
Maddie did what any normal teen girl with this disability would had done, test the waters. She just wanted to be a normal teen girl with a crush on a boy.
I still enjoyed re reading this story and this starts my journey with reading more disabled representation in books all in 2021. Great story and I liked how everything worked it self out for Maddie.
(October 2016)
I started reading this over the summer when I was going through a really bad reading slump. For that reason alone it took me much longer to get through the book. after my slump was over I went back to try and finish this novel because I didn’t want to dnf it simply because it was something I was enjoying, so I’m happy I finished it and I have to say I really enjoyed reading this story.
Maddy is sick, very sick anything out in the world can cause her to became seriously sick which is why she is bound to her house at all times. Maddy’s life is the same everyday with the exception that she doesn’t leave the house. It’s not until a new family moves into the house next door to Maddy and she notices the son (Olly) that is her age. Seeing Olly makes Maddy think about life outside of her home and meeting people for once.
Maddy soon develops a friendship with Olly over emails and IMs, One day Olly comes over to Maddy’s house while Maddy’s mother is at work. From that first visit Maddy knew she liked Olly – a lot. Later Maddy takes it upon herself to see the world without her mother’s consent and of course Olly goes along for the ride. They both travel to Hawai a place that Maddy visited when she was much younger. During their trip Maddy experiences some ups and downs and finally understood what love is.
I loved reading this book! It was fast paced yet full of secrets that you as the reader needed to find out more about. I love the diversity within the character Maddy, she is not your typical YA teenager. This story made me smile and made me feel hurt and sadness. This is such a beautiful story I think anyone who are fans of YA contemporary novels will love. The writing style is perfect for this novel it made reading it fun.
I know that this book is being made into a movie and will be out sometime next year, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the movie a well as reading Nicola Yoon’s new novel The Sun is Also a Star next month.
GREAT BEAUTIFUL 5 STAR READ!
Rating: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards.
Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
Internment by Samira Ahmed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Internment started out pretty good but then it didn’t live up to what I was hoping for. This story is about a Muslim American family taken from their home forced to live in a guarded camp with other Muslim families. Teenager Layla wants her life back and feels she should help the other families that are locked away.
This story did have a real-world feel to it but towards the middle and the end not so much. Layla was doing things that in the real world she would have gotten killed for. Then she seemed so focused on getting to her boyfriend. In a story like this that is the last thing, I would think about. Yes, Layla contacted her boyfriend to him what was going on but every few pages she seemed that’s all she cared about instead of trying to follow the rules so she or her parents won’t get killed.
This story did have some scary themes to it, but I guess I’m thinking of things that are in 2020 when hundreds of thousands of families got separated at the border and put into cages. Today this still hurts me!!
Overall this was an okay story not my favorite. It took me a very long time to finish it. I really wasn’t interested at a certain point anymore. But I can say the audiobook was good I did like the narrator. But I’m glad I finished it I don’t think I’ll be re-reading this anytime soon.