New Crayons

In New Crayons I share what new books I got this week. New Crayons is hosted by Color Online.

I've decided next week will be Haiti review week. I still don't have Every time A Rainbow Dies or Ruined but I have four out of the six books now so I'm going to go ahead with the reviews. I'm also going to try and do a post on all the authors I appreciate for Author Appreciation Week (I'll do five authors in one post).

Finally, March is Arts Appreciation Month so I've decided that March 22-27 will be reviews of books that have to do with the arts (and yes it will mostly be dancing since that's what I know, but I'll try and look for acting, music, singing and art as well). Hopefully, I'll find enough books so that the reviews will run longer than a week. And of course it's Women's History Month and I will try and find some YA POC lit with a feminist bend but I'm not sure if I know of any. Suggestions? I have read and reviewed The Kayla Chronicles by Sherri Winston which is about an African American feminist, but that's the only book I can think of that is about a POC, YA and explicitly feminist.

This week I got

The Adventures of Sili Page: The Case of Benjamin Laire by Dew Platt

Silli Page is no ordinary teenager with her sleepwalking and lucid daydreams. But when fifteen year old Benjamin Laire drops dead after a lab accident, she begins a new adventure in reality. Molly, her best friend, believes his death wasn't an accident. To find the truth she'll need the help of three unlikely people: the Englishman who, due to her foolish actions wants nothing to do with her and the two thirteen year old geek boys she and Molly often bully. Can they all stand together to ask-did someone plan Benjamin's death to look like an accident?

-Thank you Dew! I'm always willing to give self-published books a chance and I love that it's a mystery being solved by a female POC. We need more POC detectives and spies!

Legacy: The Becoming by Dew Platt

Eighteen-year-old Tutu Bade has it all going for her: a bright future, a loving family, and great friends. But what she inherits from her grandmother sends her life into a different direction. With a new supernatural awareness, when her best friend's cousin's death is labeled a suicide and the dead sixteen year old cries foul, she is thrown into an investigation. In solving the case, Tutu will have to trust her newly found instinct against everything she once believed and held dear.

-I'm trying to read more paranormal books so I look forward to reading this one. Thanks Dew!

Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes

When twelve-year-old Izzy discovers a beat-up baseball marked with the words 'Because magic' while unpacking in yet another new apartment, she is determined to figure out what it means. What secrets does this old ball have to tell? Her mom certainly isn't sharing any especially when it comes to Izzy's father, who died before Izzy was born. But when she spends the summer in her Nana's remote New Mexico village, Izzy discovers long-buried secrets that come alive in an enchanted landscape of watermelon mountains, whispering winds, and tortilla suns. Infused with the flavor of the southwest and sprinkled with just a pinch of magic, this heartfelt middle grade debut is as rich and satisfying as Nana's homemade enchiladas.

-I can practically feel the warmth of the sun on my face (ha! Scratch that. It's still cold, wishful thinking on my part). Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to reading this debut which consists of; baseball, secrets, family and Mexican food :) Thanks Chronicle Books!

From the library

Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin

"The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill someone."

Karina has plenty to worry about on the last day of seventh grade: finding three Ds and a C on her report card again, getting laughed at by everyone again, being sent to the principal -- again. She'd like this to change, but with her and her sisters dodging their stepfather's fists every day after school, she doesn't have time to do much self-reflecting. Finally her stepfather is taken away on child abuse charges, and Karina thinks things might turn into something resembling normal. The problem is, he's not gone for good. And as Karina becomes closer with a girl at the community center where her stepfather is not showing up for his parenting classes, she starts to realize a couple things. First, for all the problems her family had tried to escape by immigrating from Haiti, they brought most of them along to upstate New York. And second, if anything is going to change for this family, it is going to be up to Karina and her sisters to make it happen.

M. Sindy Felin's debut novel is the story of a young girl's coming-of-age amid the violent waters that run just beneath the surface of suburbia -- a story that has the courage to ask: How far will you go to protect the ones you love?

-I've already started reading this one and it has quite possibly the best opening sentence (it's in the summary in quotation marks) I've ever read. Sucked me right in. I'm not far along yet but the book sounds so sad. I may cry =/

Happy reading everyone and thank you in advance for your recommendations!