One of the major appeals of the KONY 2012 campaign to capture brutal Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony by this December is that, in a contentious election year, it is a nonpartisan effort. The poster to advertise the campaign illustrates that…
Tag: YA literature
The Girl in the Mirror faces grief and abandonment
The Girl in the Mirror by Meg Kearney Persea Books (April 19, 2012) 978-089255853 $15 On the same day adoptee and aspiring poet Lizzie McLaine receives non-identifying information about her birth mother, her father dies of a heart attack setting…
Prison Novels and the New Jim Crow
Last month I attended a local march to call for an investigation of the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a self-appointed neighborhood watch member in suburban Florida. At the Albany march, several of the speakers mentioned the bestselling…
A Classic for a New Generation: A Review of Nicholasa Mohr’s Nilda
For several decades, Arte Público Press and its children’s imprint Piñata Books has published new work by Latino and Latin American authors in English and Spanish and brought classic titles back into print. When Nicholasa Mohr’s young adult novel Nilda…
Journey of an African Refugee: A Review of Now Is the Time for Running
In the past two years, immigration has become a hot-button issue in the United States, with various states passing harsh immigration laws and vigilante groups patrolling the border. Living in a large country with little coverage of the outside world,…
Longing for Place: Katrina “Refugees” and Beneath a Meth Moon
When we think of refugees, we think of people driven from their homes in developing nations due to war or oppression. Rarely do we think of people fleeing the effects of global climate change as refugees, nor do we consider…
And the Winner Is…
Yesterday the American Library Association announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards, an event one colleague compared to opening a pile of holiday gifts. The “gift” that made me the happiest this year was the Pura Belpré Award for…
The War Comes Home II: A Review of The Knife and the Butterfly
Last October I spoke on a panel with four other authors, including fellow Pirate Tree-huggers J.L. Powers and Nancy Bo Flood, on the topic of children’s literature and war. My part on children as combatants included G. Neri and Randy…
How to Be Outspoken
One of the great pleasures of being a book review blogger is getting to know other bloggers, hearing what they’re reading, and sharing notes. I met Maggie Desmond-O’Brien two years ago when she reviewed Gringolandia, and we’ve stayed in touch…
Egypt on the Edge: A Review of The Glass Collector
Nearly a year ago, the people of Egypt toppled the long-standing dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and last week conducted their first democratic elections in many years. The revolution—the largest and most successful of the Arab Spring—began with a sit-in at…