Lots of great books this week! Read the book reviews below, and learn more about my favorite reads:
- Discover all the books I read this week in the It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? post.
- Read more book review posts.
- Follow my reading and reviews on Goodreads.
Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon (teen)
Gr. 9+. Liliana Cruz knows she won’t fit in at the white school her parents want her to go to. She didn’t even know her parents sent in an application for her–she just got called to the principal’s office one day and told she was accepted into the METCO program and would now be bussed to a different school with more funding. Liliana is sure she won’t go, but when she finds out that her dad ran off again, she finds herself accepting to make her mom happy.
Liliana is one of only a few kids of color at her new school, and she doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. The other METCO kids laugh at her, and the white kids ignore her–well, all of them except for one really cute boy. Liliana is sure she will drop out of this program and just go back to her old school, but then she learns that her dad isn’t off doing his own thing–he got deported, and he can’t come home because he is undocumented. Suddenly, her classmates and teachers racist remarks sting more than ever before, and Liliana decides she is done making everyone else comfortable at her own expense.
Fantastic! Liliana’s journey of self-discovery felt real. While there was a lot going on, it all felt genuine–from the at home struggles to the micro and macro aggressions at school. Powerful, enjoyable, and an easy one to recommend.
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Gr. 4-6. Lily, her mother, and her older sister Sam move in with Lily’s sick grandmother. As they drive into town, a giant, magical tiger from one of her Halmoni’s stories arrives–a tiger only Lily can see. Halmoni tells Lily that a long time ago she stole something important from the tigers, and now the tigers want it back. Lily manages to talk to one of the tigers, and it offers her a deal: return the stories that Halmoni stole, and the tigers will return Halmoni’s health. Lily knows she has to take the tiger up on its bargain–but tigers are known for not quite telling the truth. And can quiet, invisible Lily ever really be brave enough to trick a tiger?
This was beautiful and brimming with strong feelings of love and family, weaving together culture and magical realism in a quiet but yet still suspenseful fashion. The depth of the side characters really stands out to me–Halmoni’s journey towards acceptance, Sam’s fear of being left behind, Ricky’s want for a real friend who gets it, and Lily’s mom in particular, trying to hold everyone together. I see why this won the Newbery