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Month in review

Reviews:
All Aboard the Dinotrain by Deb Lund
Are You Afraid Yet? by Stephen James O'Meara
Bailey's Day by Robert Haggerty
A Brief History of Time by Shaindel Beers
Cat Heaven by Cynthia Rylant
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown
Dead End by Helen R. Myers
Dreamstone by D. A. Hendrickson
The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
The Essential Basho by Basho and translated by Sam Hamill
Excuse Me... Are You a Witch? by Emily Horn
Farewell Atlantis by Terry Bisson
Freckle Juice by Judy Blume
Grampa's Zombie BBQ by Kirk Scraggs
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
How to Host a Killer Party by Penny Warner
The Kayla Chroincles by Sherri Winston
The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola
Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint
Little Quack's Hide and Seek by Lauren Thompson
The Man Who Did Something About It by Harvey Jacobs
Owly Volume 1: The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton
Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Revolutionary War on Wednesday (Magic Tree House #22) by Mary Pope Osborne
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The Soul of the Rhino by Hemanta Mishra
Spot Visits His Grandparents by Eric Hill
The Texicans by Nina Vida
The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell
Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House #23) by Mary Pope Osborne
Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown and Leo Dillon
The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman
Veracity by Laura Bynum

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4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

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Canadian Book Challenge: 2023-2024

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The Kayla Chronicles: 06/16/10

cover art

When I sat down to write my review of The Kayla Chronicles by Sherri Winston, I thought it would be a simple process. I had read it and loved it. Since it wasn't a review book I wasn't tied down by FTC regulations regarding endorsements. It would just be an enthusiastic post about a book with a positive message for teen girls featuring an African American main character and her extended, stable family all of whom live if Florida.

Then I read the review at Black Eyed Susan's which made me pause and rethink my reaction to the book. Susan came to the book with more knowledge of black feminist history and felt that the book missed the mark by what it didn't include. I am not an expert in black feminism nor am I even conversant in the subject. I'm not saying I have to read The Kayla Chronicles, even though Kayla and her friends do quote a lot of famous people (much like some of my friends took to quoting Shakespeare for a couple years in high school). Instead, I'm asking, what am I missing in my ignorance and can I even gauge how well the book will do with its intended audience (I'm assuming teen girls of color).

The answer is, I don't know. I can tell you that I as a late thirties white woman loved the positive messages in the book and found Kayla to be a believable and likeable teen character. She reminded me of many of my teen friends who were also juggling activism and cheer leading. Were I still a teen, I'm sure I'd love the book. But even as a teen, I wouldn't exactly be the target audience, although I'd have two circles in common with that target on a Venn diagram.

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