Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt

This verse novel tells about a budding friendship that has the potential for so much more. Kate is used to being perfect - a great student, cheerleader on the path for captain, and always does exactly what her mother wants her to do. It’s all Kate can do to make things easier on her mom since Kate’s older sister joined the Navy four years ago and hasn’t visited since. Tam, on the other hand, is surrounded by diverse friends and neighbors, and her mom accepts her as she is.

The verse novel structure is perfect for this story because it heightens the emotions Kate and Tam feel for each other and the people surrounding them, but also leaves enough room for the reader to experience their own perceptions. I love that books like this for tweens who need to see themselves in stories to really understand themselves and others.

Birthday by Meredith Russo

Everyone raved about Russo’s debut novel, If I Was Your Girl, but it fell flat to me because it lacked emotion and realism. I thought Amanda had it too easy as passing, and the trans issues were glossed over. My thoughts on the lack of depth in If I Was Your Girl doesn’t make it a bad book, but I had hoped for more struggle, more reality, and more information that trans teens (or anyone, really) might need to know to understand this issue better. (You can read my full review here, so I don't hijack this review with something only semi-related.)

That being said, I definitely wanted to give Russo a second chance, so I was eager to read Birthday. And wow, did it deliver!

  

Eric and Morgan were born on the same day, and a freak September blizzard in their small Tennessee town left their families stranded in the hospital together for several days. They bonded and became close family friends, and Eric and Morgan became best friends. They celebrate their birthday together every year, and this book is told from their alternating points of view, only on their birthdays from the ages of fourteen to eighteen. Seeing just these glimpses into the lives of Eric and Morgan was enough to get a good story rounded out, with enough room to imagine what the characters are like during the rest of their lives.

Over time, Eric and Morgan's families grow apart. Morgan loses his mother to cancer and struggles with the aftermath. When Morgan quits the football team, Eric's father labels him a sissy and doesn't treat him like family anymore. When Eric joins the football team, he and Morgan start to grow apart.  There were so many layers to this story - family relationships, school struggles, self-loathing and self-acceptance, friendship, love. It wasn’t too much, and it was all well-done and balanced to create a realistic world with characters you can easily identify with and understand.

Eric and Morgan are such deep characters, and I loved getting to see inside of both of their heads and hearts. They both struggle with identity and self in such real ways, and I was so glad all of that was laid out on the page for readers. I highly recommend this book, and hope it gets as much, if not more, attention than Russo’s first book. It is well-deserved.

2017 Reading Challenges

In 2017 I plan to read more of those books that you’re “supposed” to read in your life. One I read a long time ago and want to re-read. A few are books that I’ve really wanted to read and always say I will, but put it off in favor of any other book that catches my eye. Some are books that never sounded that good to me, but are such staples that I feel like I need to give in and read them, for the sake of being a bookworm and librarian.

I plan to read one classic a month, which still gives me plenty of reading time for whatever books catch my eye on the shelves.

The Classics Challenge books are:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I pulled this list from here, so once I complete this challenge, I will have read 24 out of the 30 books. I’ll leave those last 6 to tackle in 2018…

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I also want to read more diverse books. I am going to make conscious choices with every book I read in 2017, but will read a baseline of 12 diverse books, which again is one a month, minimum. I picked books from We Need Diverse Books’ end of the year booklist.

The Diverse Challenge books are:

Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

Since You Asked by Maurene Goo

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Show and Prove by Sofia Quintero

The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez

Are you undertaking any reading challenges for 2017? Do you have any book recommendations I should add to my list, or feedback on the titles I chose?