Review by: Taylor Lohman Keywords: Picturebook, Early Reader A beautifully illustrated children’s book portraying the indigenous-led fight against a monstrous, miles-long black snake, this true-story of the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is both fantasy and reality, told through a lens both indigenous and feminist. This 2020 picturebook is narrated by a young girl…
Review by Sean Cameron Golden In a queer retelling of Aqualads origin story, Lambda Award-Winning author Alex Sanchez and illustrator Julie Maroh, capture first love through the eyes of a superpowered teen who is wrestling with his new powers and a crush on the swim team captain. Stuck in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Jake…
The Moon Within is a poetic exploration of puberty, gender, first love, and coming of age, expertly and beautifully interwoven with a celebration of the author’s Mexican indigenous roots and Caribbean traditions.
Review by Emma Statt Get ready to take your heart on your emotional roller coaster. The graphic novel The Best We Could Do has been praised by the Pulitzer Prize- winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen as, “a book to break your heart and heal it.” Indeed, this National bestseller is a beautifully illustrated memoir describing…
Review by Destyn Land What makes hair good or bad, and who gets to determine which is which? In our society manyyoung Black girls are told that their hair is much prettier or sometimes even told that it’s onlypretty if permed and straightened. The process of straightening and perming can do muchdamage to Black hair…
Review by: Rae Quintero This book is a biography of the famous Cesar Chavez who was the leader of a civil rights group for farmworkers called the National Association for Farm Workers in the early 1940s. As a young boy living on a ranch with his family, Cesar has to move because of a drought…
Review by: Brynne Diggins How do you get a bully to leave you alone? Be so good at something that no one can criticize you – that’s what Rahul Kapoor thinks, at least. In The Best At It by Maulik Pancholy, 12-year-old Rahul wants to find something he can be the best at in order…
Review by: Theresa Haider Voted as one of NPR’s Best Books of the Year, and a nominee for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults 2021, Nic Stone’s Dear Justyce ensnares readers in America’s juvenile justice system and leaves them asking what can be done to change it. Can Quan overcome what so many around him…
Do you like to be hugged? Not everyone does, which is the case for Benny, an autistic boy who likes many things, but hugs are not one of them. In Benny Doesn’t Like to be Hugged, the unnamed narrator tells the unique characteristics and needs of her friend Benny. For example, Benny knows many facts…
Review by: Shelby Dale DeWeese What would you do if you met a magical tiger? This is the situation that 12-year-old Lily finds herself in when she, her mother, and her sister Sam move from California to Washington state to live with Lily’s sick halmoni (grandmother). When they arrive in Washington, a magical tiger straight…
Children's Literature at UMN 