Monday, September 4, 2023

Book Review: How Do You Spell Unfair?

Young Black girl is wearing a white dress with some kind of small read flower or other object dotted around. She is holding onto a microphone stand and has her mouth open to speak. The title is in gold letters and there is a red curtain behind MacNolia.
Title: How Do You Spell Unfair?

Author: Carol Boston Weatherford

Illustrator: Frank Morrison

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Availablity: On shelves now

Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Summary: MacNolia Cox was no ordinary kid. Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary. In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity—right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens—with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled—on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself. With a brief epilogue recounting MacNolia’s further history, How Do You Spell Unfair? is the story of her groundbreaking achievement magnificently told by award-winning creators and frequent picture-book collaborators Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison.

My Thoughts: There are so many ways people have found to discriminate against African Americans and others over the years in the United States, but young readers may not realize how incredibly pervasive these things were. They may know about separate water fountains, where people could and couldn't sit on buses, or how difficult it could be to be able to vote, but might know that discrimination was baked into so many other areas of life. Here we see how there were many young people, including MacNolia Cox, who faced this unfairness with much effort, determination, and the support of family and community. 

The use of unique and interesting words throughout the text support the context of the spelling bee and provide challenges for readers if they want to practice or learn that vocabulary. The illustrations are rich and add depth to the story without distracting from it. 

Recommendation: This is a great picture book that shares part of our history and honors the many who have fought for justice in many areas of life over the years. It is an excellent addition to any library especially if you want to broaden your civil rights collection beyond the more typical buses and boycotts books. 

Monday, May 15, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

Recent Posts at Rich in Color:

Review of Gloria Buenrostro is Not My Girlfriend by Brandon Hoàng

Shining a Light on Some Early 2023 Books - HarperCollins books we skipped during the strike

Review of Men of the 65th: The Boriqueneers of the Korean War by Talia Aikens Nuñez

Muslim Voices 2023

Beach with water gently rolling in. In the distance the very top of the Golden Gate bridge is peeking out above fog. There is a blue sky and it's sunny.

My hand is holding a golden library card that features a young Black girl holding an open book and smiling. There is a full book shelf behind her.

Personal Update: It's been quite a while since I posted anything here on the blog. I've been reading less this year too. Having moved across the country last summer, being new at three different jobs (one I just started in Feb), and having a seriously ill mom in another state, my productivity has taken a hit. Taking days one at a time is the only way to function well at this point. 

Yesterday was a good day. We figured out a nice (free parking) place to catch a ferry to San Francisco. We also found the free shuttle bus to the National Park at the Presidio. It was lovely to walk on the beach and see the bridge and also the many, many dogs that were frolicking. We also stopped by the library that I've popped into many times when we've been visiting. This time, I knew to sign up for a library card! CA residents can sign up for cards in any city and then have access to the digital collections. It's also fun to see the cards from different places anyway. These little joys really make life beautiful in spite of difficulties. 

Last weekend was another fun time when we got to go the Bay Area Book Festival. Seeing and meeting many authors was a treat. 

Recent Reads I'd Recommend

Graphic Novel
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat - such a great memoir of middle school age explorations happening during a trip to Europe

Picture Books
What Your Ribbon Skirt Means to Me: Deb Haaland's Historical Inauguration by Alexis C. Bunten with illustrations by Nicole Neidhardt - beautiful current day Indigenous story 

Night Market Rescue by Charlotte Cheng with illustrations by Amber Ren - takes you right into the Night Market in Taiwan and the art is gorgeously lit up in spite of it happening at night

Endlessly Ever After by Laurel Snyder with illustrations by Dan Santat - so many interesting results in this choose your own adventure style picture book

Adult Fiction
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Sutanto - such a twisty and hilarious murdery book

Currently: I watched a panel at the book festival that had Ellen Oh and some of the other writers from You Are Here: Connecting Flights and have started listening to in with Libro.fm. I am also eager to get started on Grounded after hearing a panel of all of the authors for this middle grade that also takes place in an airport. Have a great week of reading!

Monday, March 20, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Week in Books: 

Illustrated cover of the book Cartographers.  A young woman is sitting on an escalator. The colors are mostly red with a little bit of orange and blue here and there. Here shoes are green. She has long dark hair and has an intent look on her face. Above the escalator, New York buildings can be seen in the night sky.

This week I have only read the YA book The Cartographers by Amy Zhang. Much of the book is internal dialogue and some of it takes place within an online document between two people so there isn't a lot of action. There's a lot to think about and deals quite a bit with mental health. I got a copy from the publisher and will write more about it for Rich in Color later.

The Coming Week: I am not sure how much reading I will accomplish this week. I have my regular school district jobs - 5o% as a teacher librarian at an elementary school and 25% as a library tech at a K-12 school for independent study. That second one is a newer job and I am still weeding, shifting, and getting used to my duties there. I also have my almost 25% public library job in the evenings. We have a book fair at my elementary school so that adds a bit of extra tasks. And then, it will be Spring Break when I will get to go visit my mother and sister in TX. I just got my copy of Karuna Riazi's A Bit of Earth that's a Secret Garden re-telling and I will likely take that on my trip. Have a great week!

Monday, March 13, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

three book covers. The first is redefining realness and has a photo of Janet Mock in a peach v neck dress. The second is Drunk on Love and shows a silhouette of a man and woman in an embrace each holding a wine glass. The third is throwback and has one young woman at the top upside down holding a cell phone with an antenna and a young woman right side up at the bottom wearing airpods in her ears.

The Past Week in Books: This week was not a big one for reading, but I did finish reading the digital ARC of Throwback by Maurene Goo to review on Rich in Color later this week. It's a cute time travel rom-com that made me smile a lot in spite of time travel books being something I usually avoid.  

I also read a Jasmine Guillory adult romance called Drunk on Love. I enjoyed it okay, but I like her other books better. I am just realizing that both fiction books I read this week take place in CA. This one was in Napa and I think the Maurene Goo book is in the LA area. 

One other book got my attention this week and that was the adult memoir by Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. It was on my personal shelf and I had picked it up quite some time ago, but hadn't gotten around to reading it. Writing is already a pursuit that leaves one vulnerable, but a memoir seems to be on the far end of the scale. This was a difficult memoir to read, but it had to be incredibly difficult to write. 

The Coming Week: I am not sure what I will be reading this week, but will surely pick up something. Happy reading!

Monday, March 6, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Two Weeks in Books:  I've finally started to pick up the pace of my reading. It's been a while since I've been reading large amounts of books. I work very part-time at the public library and I was able to read through some of the newly processed books last week while I was at the reference desk. 

Cover images of the four books described below. The first shows a child with dark hair that is crying and the title is within the dark shape that is her open mouth. The second is all in earth tones and shows and grandmother and granddaughter leaning their faces together with smiles. The third shows a young girl and an even younger boy sitting on the floor playing on a circular carpet with many brightly colored toys from a box that has the Star of David on it. The final on is called All Aboard the Schooltrain and shows a girl with braids holding up a book with a big smile. Behind her is a line of children walking to the right.

This is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang illustrated by Eugenia Yoh depicts a child and her family moving to Taiwan to help her grandmother. Lily is not pleased to be in a place where so many things feel unfamilar. It was very interesting and I think that there are many people who can connect with this specific situation, but there are also those who can relate simply to feeling out of place somewhere. 

Just Like Grandma by Kim Rogers illustrated by Julie Flett is simply beautiful. The illustrations are lovely of course, but the relationship between the grandmother and grand-daughter is also just a joy to see. 

The Not-Quite-Perfect Passover by Laura Gehl illlustrated by Olga Ivanov & Aleksey Ivanov is a cute story about Ruby and her family trying to get ready to host the first Passover seder since their Bubbe, who usually does this, broke her leg. Ruby wants it to be perfect, but many things happen, often because of her younger sibling, but they manage to pull it all together with a theme of being not quite perfect. 

All Aboard the Schooltrain: A Little Story from the Great Migration by Glenda Armand illustrated by Keisha Morris is a story based on things from the author's family history. It is about some families in the south slowly seeing others leave their town. Rather than taking a bus to school, they walk together to school in a line like a train, but there are also trains taking people to other places. It's a good one for introducing the Great Migration.
Young Japanese woman is wearing a crown and there are cherry blossoms framing her on each side. She is smiling. The background is green.

I finished reading the young adult novel Tokyo Dreaming by Emiko Jean. It's the sequel to Tokyo Ever After and is a nice follow up to the first novel. She and her mother both have to deal with the ever after part of happily. What happens after you find your love and the every day details start to get in the way? 


I was able to go to the California School Library Association annual conference this week and I took along the graphic travelogue Tokyo on Foot: Travels in the City's Most Colorful Neighborhoods by Florent Chavouet. I figured it would be easy to pick up and put down in between workshops and things and it was a good one to have there. I really enjoyed the maps and remembering different places that we have visited. Some of the authors humor didn't appeal as he has a tendency to make fun of the way people look, but the art is nice and I started to skim the commentary towards the end. 

There are some tall flowered plants on the right and a tree on the left. In the middle, the ocean can be seen. There is a small area that is darker and that is the top of the kelp where the sea otters were floating.

It's a beach view with many rocks. There are some trees in the distance on the left. They look like they have been sculpted by the wind. There are waves rolling into the beach. The sky is blue with some white clouds.

The conference was on the California coast and we had some opportunities to walk along the ocean. It was beautiful. In the top photo, it is difficult to see, but there were sea otters out there in the kelp floating around. It was fun to have gone into Pacific Grove to the bookstore and library. I was able to read a board book called Sea Otter Pup by Victoria Miles illustrated by Elizabeth Gatt so I knew that it was the kelp that was keeping them altogether so they wouldn't float away. 

In the exhibit area I read Mommy's Hometown by Hope Lim illustrated by Jaime Kim tells of a young boy and his mother traveling to Korea to visit her childhood home. He has heard many stories about this place, but it many things have changed. It's fun to watch them explore and discover things on their way.

Gibberish by Young Vo is about a child who has moved to a new country and doesn't understand the language around him. You can really empathize with him and see what that might be like. If that's an experience that a reader is familiar with it could also be affirming. 

A young child is lying in a field of grass looking up at the bright sky.

A Kite for Melia by Samuel Narh and Freda Narh illustrated by Valeria Suria was at one of the tables and I was able to meet the author. It's a sweet story about a child wanting to make a kite and her determination as she goes to the library to find out how to do that. 

A family is standing together. The father has light brown skin and a short haircut. His hand is on a daughter standing in front of him. Her skin is darker. She has two blue bows in her hair. She's smiling at the baby in her mother's arms. Her mother has dark shin and shoulder length hair. The title says Love is All Around.

There were a few other authors there. Nikki Shannon-Smith was there. I had heard her speak at our county library a few weeks ago. She has a relatively new board book named Love is All Around illustrated by Ronique Ellis.

We were also lucky because Minh Lê was the guest speaker since Drawn Together won the California Young Reader's Award last year. It was nice to see him again and it's always lovely to hear him speak about that book. It's a treasure.

It was fun to have dinner with many of the other librarians from our school district, but also have the authors Nikki Shannon-Smith, Nadia Salomon, and Robin Yardi with us to chat. Nikki is a fourth grade teacher in our school district and we are lucky to have her in our community.

Two young children are staring out a window. We see them from the back. Out in the stars like a constellation, there is an image of Ganesha. There is a face and trunk of an elephant and four human arms with hands and two legs and human feet. The book has a dark cover with gold and red patterns in the curtains and designs.

Nadia was right next to me and I got her book Goodnight Ganesha right after dinner. The trailer is here. The book was illustrated by Poonam Mistry and I have really loved her previous books like You're Safe with Me. Her designs are always vibrant and gorgeous. They used the very slick paper too so the pages are very smooth and shiny. It's a bedtime story and has lots of love.

The Coming Week: I have a newish Jasmine Guillory book on my Kindle and I am also reading a digital ARC of the new Marene Goo young adult rom-com Throwback. What will you be reading? I hope it's a great week for you. 

Monday, February 20, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Two Weeks in Books:  

I've been reading some of the award books and this week that meant grabbing Kapaemahu and Love, Violet. They both won a Stonewall and were lovely. In the first, we see Indigenous people who are healers with dual male and female spirit. There is a movie that you can watch that tells this story here. Love, Violet is a sweet Valentine's Day book. Another award book was Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration which got the Sibert Award. It includes photos and commentary about the pictures. It was interesting to see how the perspective of the photographers and their purposes shaped the images and determined what would be captured and what would be omitted. Related to this was the picture book Love in the Library about two people who fell in love while living in a Japanese incarceration camp. The author talks a little bit about her grandparents that the story is based on in this video

A new book I listened to via Libro.fm is Finally Seen by Kelly Yang. Her books are always so completely relatable. I'm excited to get this one in the hands of students. It also has a brief storyline related to censorship and I really wish so many US students didn't have to relate to that so much right now. 

I am partial to romance books and since it was Valentine's Day (month) I checked out a few adult romances to zip through. They were all pleasant and entertaining and made me smile for the most part. I read The Singles Table, Good Morning Love, and one very quick one Wrapped Up in You

Somebody's Daughter was one I took on my quick trip to TX to see my mother for her birthday last weekend. I was glad I had it since I got delayed at the airport. It's the story of a young Korean American adoptee who travels to Korea to look for her birth mother. It's intense and shows both the perspective of the adoptee and the birth mother. There's a lot to think about especially about international and interracial adoptions and how they can affect the young people.

The Coming Week: I'm listening to the YA romcom Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute again in preparation for our Rich in Color group discussion coming up in March. I started reading Tokyo Dreaming which is a sequel to Tokyo Ever After. I have also started reading the ARC of a new young adult novel by Maurene Goo. Have a great reading week. 

Monday, February 6, 2023

It's Monday! What are you reading?

An image of books has another image on top that explains what It's Monday is all about. You may find the same information in the first two sentences on the post.
It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book! 

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. 

If you want to see more of my reading, visit my Goodreads shelves here. The lists of the books in the images below may be found at Goodreads. 

The Past Three Weeks in Books:  

I've been reading a lot of picture books for our Mock Award units. For our Coretta Scott King unit, the students chose Bessie the Motorcycle Queen by Charlot Kristensen illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr.  We were all enthralled with her story of cycling across the nation. Another one I enjoyed was Music is a Rainbow by Bryan Collier. It's full of emotion and the healing power of music. 

For our Sibert Award, the students chose Blips on a Screen: How Ralph Baer Invented TV Video Gaming and Launched a Worldwide Obsession by Kate Hannigan illustrated by Zachariah OHora. His story is fascinating and also, video games are just a wildly popular topic. 

For our Pura Belpré, the students chose My Town, Mi pueblo by Nicholas Solis illustrated by Luisa Uribe. We also really enjoyed How to Hear the Universe: Gaby González and the Search for Einstein's Ripples in Space-Time by Patricia Valdez illustrated by Sara Palacios. We really had fun learning about sounds in space. I didn't have time to read it with the students, but I also really loved Tía Fortuna's New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey by Ruth Behar illustrated by Devon Holzwarth. 

A student had asked me for a book about early kings in Korea so I had ordered a book called Letters from Korean History 1: From Prehistory to Unified Silla and Balhae. It was quite interesting and I think I'll have to get the next one in the series too. What was really cool was that the author included basic history of early humans and not just those in Korea so it helps the reader relate the history in this very specific place in relation to the history of the rest of the world. It would be useful with any class that is learning about early humans.

I also read a few random books like The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill. This is a lovely, lovely middle grade book that asks a lot of questions about love, community, and where to put trust. I also picked up the picture book Brown is Beautiful by Supriya Kelkar illustrated by Noor Sofi. It's beautiful both in the writing and the illustrations. Knight Owl is another book that's a delight for the eyes. It is also just a sweet little bit of fantasy. I got the audio version of Talia Hibbert's young adult book Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. It's a delightful rom-com and since I already adored Hibbert's adult romances, I was not surprised. 

One adult book landed in my lap - The Love Con by Seressia Glass. It's a fun rom-com that involves fake dating and best friends. That's one of my favorite storylines and this one was a winner for me. 

The Coming Week: 

I am listening to Jennifer Chan is Not Alone. Other than that, I am not sure what I'll be picking up next. Have a great reading week.