Reviewed by Kim Broomall Review Source: Disability in Kid Lit Book Author: This is what makes Taylor, one of the two narrators of Queens of Geek, such a refreshing character. Jen Wilde is autistic and anxious herself, which gives the narrative authenticity that is so lacking in similar books. There’s plenty of truth here that can […]
Dead Girls Society
Reviewed by Cindy Baldwin Review Source: Disability in Kid Lit Book Author: When Hope, who has cystic fibrosis (CF) and is driven to distraction by her mother’s overprotective insistence on keeping Hope at home for the past several months, receives a strange invitation from a group that refers to itself as the Society, she throws caution […]
Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling
Reviewed by Angeline B. Adams Review Source: Disability in Kid Lit Book Author: What happened to Chess was so physically and emotionally distressing that she can’t even bring herself to share it with the reader, but it spurred her hospital admission and diagnosis with Crohn’s disease, a chronic illness affecting her digestive system. Her mum, determinedly […]
Stef Soto, Taco Queen
Reviewed by Caissa Casarez Review Source: Latinx in Kid Lit Book Author: Jennifer Torres doesn’t waste any time introducing the readers to Stef and the people in her life, including Papi and her best friend Arthur in the first scene outside of their Catholic middle school. She notices Papi in his taco truck – known as […]
Six of Crows
Reviewed by Natasha Razi Review Source: Disability in Kid Lit Book Author: At its heart, Six of Crows is a classic heist story: a group of interesting, messed-up people facing a seemingly impossible crime — in this case, breaking a prisoner out of a high-security prison. Within this framework, Bardugo weaves together five points of view, […]
The First Rule of Punk
Reviewed by Lettycia Terrones Review Source: Latinos in Kid Lit Book Author: There is a scene half-way through Celia C. Pérez’s brilliant middle-grade novel The First Rule of Punk that pulls so powerfully at the heartstrings of all those who have ever struggled with forming their identity as a minoritized person in the U.S. Having just wrapped up […]