Tag: Book Review

Books, Read + Review, Teen Reviews

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter

rachelthelibrarian
Click here to place a hold on this book!

Emilie Hornby’s Valentine’s Day could not have gone worse. She gets late to school after hitting a classmate’s car, spills coffee over her outfit, and she sees her boyfriend kissing another girl. To top it all off, her father bears unwelcome news, making it all too much. Overwhelmed, Emilie goes to bed, ready for the day to be over… only to wake up and find that it’s February 14th all over again. She relives the agonizing events day after day, and at first, no matter how much she tries, nothing changes. Her car still gets damaged, and her plans with her boyfriend don’t work out. But as she starts to embrace the resetting Valentine’s Days, Emilie finds herself making use of the opportunity and unexpectedly getting closer to Nick. Breaking free of everyone’s expectations, Emilie wonders if she even wants everything to return to normal when the loop is over.

Although stories about a repeating day are nothing new, I’ve had good experiences in the past with this cliché and was intrigued by the summary. I’m happy to say that the book didn’t disappoint. Something that I really enjoyed is how once Emilie finds herself relatively free of consequences, she gets into a lot of fun shenanigans, and I found myself having fun with her. It speaks to how well the author developed Emilie’s growth from quiet and obedient to something more. It was exhilarating in a way watching her push past what was expected of her and letting loose, especially since I can relate, being a relatively quiet and obedient person myself. Emilie’s love interest was also fun, and they had good chemistry together. However, since it was mostly Emilie’s story, we don’t really know a whole lot about the love interest for a majority of the book. Additionally, the romance did move a little too fast considering only Emilie remembers anything from the previous Valentine’s Days, but it was cute enough to make up for that. One thing I didn’t like is the presence of miscommunication to create drama. Miscommunication is a trope that has been overdone in stories, especially in romance, as a way to create conflict. Although I do understand that miscommunication is a common trope in romance, I wish the story didn’t resort to it but gave us something more nuanced, especially since it felt a little abrupt and unfair for the characters. I do appreciate that it made sense within later context, but it felt like a copout from developing a better conflict to have. This story also ended up giving a hint as to why the never-ending loop happens in the first place; I personally wasn’t a fan of it, but it was touching. Although a few things slightly annoyed me, this book was overall very fun and cute, with lots of heartwarming fluff that I appreciated. It’s between 4 and 5 stars, but I’ve rounded down to 4 stars.

What was memorable about this book is the genuine fun that I felt while reading it. I think one of my favorite moments in this book is that at one point, Emilie receives a promposal (albeit pretend) that’s Cupid Shuffle themed, and it’s in public. In the context of that moment, the contrast of what the crowd thinks versus what’s actually happening is hilarious, both for the characters and for me. It’s one of those moments that amazed me with how fun it was.

Reviewed by Christine J., Twin Hickory Area Library

Books, Read + Review, Teen Reviews

The Door Of No Return by Kwame Alexander

rachelthelibrarian
Click here to place a hold on this book!

The Door of No Return is a short story-like novel following Kofi Offin. He grew up in a kingdom called Asante, modern day Ghana. Kofi has a brother called Kwasi who thinks he is better at everything compared to Kofi. Eventually, Kofi gets the idea to challenge Kwasi to a swimming race as he is much better underwater. This is around the time that a wrestling competition between Upper and Lower Kwanta happens. The Kwantas are the two parts of Asante. During the match, Kwasi faces off against the heir of the Lower’s throne, Yaw. Unfortunately for Yaw, he is killed after Kwasi accidentally knocks him out cold. Lower Kwanta wants revenge. They capture both Kofi and Kwasi. Kwasi is killed by Lower while Kofi stays in prison until a group tries to free them. They are captured by Lower’s military and are taken prisoner again. Eventually, Wonderfuls, foreigners who arrived in Asante, take them on a boat. Now, it is life or death for Kofi. Will he survive or will he drown with not even his swimming skills to save him?

This book resembles real life 1850s in many ways. I can see so many similarities to African culture. Wonderfuls are foreigners and how they put Kofi and other people on the board seems to be like the Atlantic slave trade. The time period backs that up as this is the 1850s and 60s. That would mean that this is happening during European colonization of Africa. Kofi describes the flag on the boat as having 7 red stripes and 33 stars, the exact flag of the US during 1860, so this would say that Americans came to Asante to take slaves. Asante is also known to have lots of gold. Real life Ghana is Africa’s lead gold producer. During the Atlantic slave trade, Ghana was ravaged for its gold. During the Atlantic slave trade, Ghana had two sides, one that embraced the colonizers, and one that didn’t allow these people in at all, perfectly matching the book. The location of Cape Coast Castle in the book is a real life location in Ghana. Even the location of Asante matches that of modern day Ghana. So, the book was based off of modern day Ghana is 1860 when the Atlantic slave trade was happening. Kofi was kidnapped and shipped off to slavery by Americans. Seeing all these connections really shocked me. It told me that Kwame Alexander put time into this book. He did his research on Ghana and put these clues in the book, or, I guess, just tells us that it is Ghana in the author’s note, but it was fun putting all these pieces to conclude what was the story of Asante, what happened to Kofi, and a lot of other mysteries surrounding this strange, African kingdom.

My favorite part of the book was when the wrestling competition was happening and how the author described the yam festival made by the real-life Asante empire. The wrestling competition was described beautifully. The plot twist that Yaw would die was a shocker as I didn’t expect him to die, just lose. That plot twist drove the story onward and explained how Kwasi got killed. Without that, the story would lose meaning. The main tie for the story was so good and frankly the climax of the story. Ties for the story in many other books are lost and the only purpose is to hold the story together. The tie in The Door of No Return is the polar opposite of that and I love it.

Overall, I give The Door of No Return a perfect 5 out of 5. All the pages are in short bursts, around the size of the average poem, just without the rhyming. Yet, the book is 398 pages of perfection. It makes up for the lack of words on the pages with a lot of pages. That makes the book long and neat. I recommend it to anyone with a taste for historical fiction or frankly the need for a good story to read.

Reviewed by Akshith I., Twin Hickory Area Library

Books, Read + Review, Teen Reviews

Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

rachelthelibrarian
Click here to place a hold on this book!

Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future is a book on how climate change has affected us and our world for centuries, ever since the industrial revolution. It talks about where the world stands today, as global warming is worse than ever. The book tells the story about the slow path to reform, led by Rafe Pomerance and James Hansen, who encountered obstacles, but simply would not give up. Lastly it talks about how young people can rise up and lead the fight to stop global warming. It explains how with hard work and effort, we can save the planet, for us, and for posterity.

I thought this book was an excellent reflection on the past work and effort of activists and scientists alike. While reading the book, the author includes quotes from various activists and scientists, showing how passionate and dedicated they were in addressing climate change. I like the illustrations the book includes which are a nice touch to the story. I also enjoy how the book went in chronological order discussing the events of the industrial revolution, and then the events from the Reagan administration all the way to the Biden presidency, noting all the changes in environmental policy that have been made. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to research the historical significance of climate change.

For me, the most memorable part of the story was when James Hansen was testifying to the effects of climate change to Congress during the Bush administration. Before he presented, someone from the White House tried to censor parts of Hansen’s speech. When the press and opponents of Bush found out they treated Hansen like a hero, even though he just wanted to talk about climate change. I think the author was trying to tell us that sometimes the people in power don’t care about our issues, and that we need to work hard ourselves to achieve results, and hold our elected leaders accountable.

Reviewed by Tristan M., Twin Hickory Area Library

Books, Read + Review

How to Be a (Young) Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone

rachelthelibrarian
Click here to place the book on hold!

How to Be a (Young) Antiracist is a story about how racism was created, and how it affects our lives, as well as how we can stop it. The first part of the book talks about the definition of racism, and the thoughts and ideas people have about themselves, as well as other people. The second part of the book explains how racism can affect people, whether it is based on race, gender, or culture. In the last section, the book lays out how ordinary people can work with themselves, and others, to demolish the ugly building of racism, and create a better future.

This book is told from the perspective of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, which I thought was clever. The narrator, who is Nic Stone, tells you the stories of your (Ibram X. Kendi’s) life and the revelations you had about racism along the way. It is the first book I have read that is told from a second person point of view. The authors also used lots of slang words which is something I haven’t seen in a lot of books. I found that in the beginning of the book I didn’t really understand what was going on, but as I read deeper into the story it started to make sense. The bit about how both segregationists and assimilationists can be harmful really intrigued me. It also was fun for me to read the little notes that the author had on each page. This book was a very attention grabbing story and I didn’t put the book down until the end.

A part of the book that resonated with me is where the author is talking about the origins of racism. I always thought that racism has been around forever, ever since people realized that some people have different skin color than them. However this book showed me that race, and therefore racism have only been around for 400 years. It goes on to explain that in those 400 years racism has transformed our minds and society. I thought this was incredible because that means that with enough work, we can perhaps erase racism entirely, which is something I had never thought to be possible.

Reviewed by Tristan M., Twin Hickory Area Library

Books, Read + Review

In the City of Time by Gwendolyn Clare

rachelthelibrarian
Click here to learn more about the book and place a hold!

In the City of Time starts by introducing us to Riley and Jaideep, two friends who live in the post-apocalyptic, artificial world of 2033, after a horrible accident in 1891 started to slowly destroy the real one. These two friends are on the verge of creating a time travel machine that will be able to stop the events that destroyed the world, but their plan goes wrong and they end up accidentally kidnapping a teenager from 1891 named Willa. To make their situation even worse, they are being pursued by an android named Petrichor from the future who is hellbent to destroy them. Together, the three of them work to save humanity, while escaping the “time cops” trying to stop them.

The narration was interesting,I liked how some chapters are told from Willa’s perspective and the others were told from Riley’s point of view. I also really liked all the androids named Saudade, Petrichor, and Deasil. I’m grateful that the author decided to put the time and location of the characters before each chapter which really helped me understand the book a lot better despite all the time traveling. The plot of the story took many surprising twists and turns, which made the book interesting but also a bit confusing if you are really not paying attention to the details. The villains of the book are also a bit lackluster and since they were introduced two-thirds of the way into the story, I didn’t really get to understand them. Despite this, I thought the book was pretty good and definitely felt intrigued by the plot.

My favorite is the part of the story around Saudade and Petrichor. Petrichor spends decades traveling through time to avenge his lost friend, and when they were finally reunited it was very heartwarming.

Reviewed by Tristan M., Twin Hickory Area Library