I have to apologize, because I just noticed today that there are comments from as far back as 2022 that I never was notified of, so that's why I've never responded. I'm not sure why I stopped getting notifications. This being a far less used blog than my VVD one, I tend to think no one is commenting, so I don't end up in the comments section often.
So I'm very sorry if you left something and I didn't reply! It was not intentional.
Wow, I haven't posted since January! To be fair, this has been a weird year so far.
I just finished this and had to write about it right away.
Set in 1985, We Built This City is a coming-of-age novel featuring 12-year-old Stephanie, who goes by Stevie. Stevie is part of a performing troupe made up of 13-18-year-olds. Her older brother is part of the troupe and her best friend's mom runs it, which is how she got to go on tour a little early.
Stevie is a shy girl who only has the one best friend. His name is Wes and there are never any romantic feelings going on between them, which is always a nice touch. Genuine boy-girl besties. Wes has a crush on Tuesday, another member of the troupe who's one year older. Stevie has a crush on Joey, who I think is also one year older.
Stevie's plan is to write a letter to Casey Kasem every day of the tour and mail it, trying to get hers read as the Long-Distance Dedication so she can reveal her crush on Joey. Wes has agreed to also tell Tuesday by the end of the trip how he's felt about her for ages.
The troupe is unique in that they're basically a lip-synching dance group. They never actually sing and their skill levels vary, which is why Wes's mom created the troupe in the first place. She wanted there to be a place for everyone. Possibly the most unrealistic thing is that the troupe is never presented as some sort of thing other kids think is dorky. There are like high school junior boys on this tour and they're not concerned about how that looks to their classmates who aren't in the troupe. I wasn't quite that old in 1985, only 7, so these sorts of troupes were probably more accepted then, but it still feels a little fantasy worldish. They perform songs from movies and it actually sounds pretty cool, but you know how people can be about teasing.
There are 26 kids and a few adults on this month-long cross-country tour. I've always loved books where there's lots of travel, so this was right up my alley, as well as being set in my childhood decade.
As the tour progresses, Stevie learns how to come out of her shell. She befriends some of the girls she was convinced would never be her friends. Christy, her idol, is older and she has deaf parents, so she does sign language sometimes. Amy, who's Chinese and adopted, loves wearing black and is obsessed with horror stuff. (I predictably love Amy.) Tuesday, Wes's crush, has red hair that's half-shaved. She's a badass and my favorite of the secondary cast. I wonder if the author was a fan of That 80s Show, because I loved Tuesday from that as well.
As she spends so much time somewhat in his presence, Stevie's feelings for Joey evolve. I'm going to stop here, so I don't do the spoiler thing. You've got to read it to find out if Stevie's dedication ever gets played, if she gets what she wants, if Wes ever tells Tuesday how he feels, etc. But this book is way more than young romance. It's just plain awesome. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of YA stuff and especially if you're around my age.
I enjoyed this one. Cora goes through a lot to survive during the Tri-State Tornado event of 1925. The author did a great job of capturing how terrifying this must have been.
My main criticism is that the characters felt a little too modern in voice. I didn't feel like this was set in 1925. And I'm mad about the main casualty of the tornado. That didn't have to happen and I hate when authors resort to it, as I consider it weak writing.
It's theme deja vu. One of the books in the last release dealt with Bloody Sunday, which happened in Selma, Alabama in 1965 during right to vote protests.
This is set a couple years earlier in Burmingham, but it's the same right to vote topic. Not that this isn't important, but maybe space them out a bit more? The difference here is that the children are the ones doing the protesting and getting arrested, whereas in Selma, it was all ages. The majority of this book is set in the jail, which is different from the first one.
It's a good book. I just don't think the two voting ones needed to be so close.
Essie's book is set on Bloody Sunday, which was March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama.
Even though she's young, Essie is a big time protestor, who's already been jailed for the offense multiple times. This time she finds herself in the middle of the most violent protest she's ever witnessed, with the non-violent protestors being beaten, teargassed and hosed down. It's not easy to read all the damage done to Essie, but it's important. It's always been ridiculous in this country what people have had to do just to gain the most basic right to vote.
Gah, I started writing this post back in August. All the other books and graphic novels were read then, but I just couldn't bring myself to do the Katrina book. Now that the two newest books are out, I made myself pick it up and finally get through it.
Being a hurricane survivor, this one was very hard to read, but what we dealt with was nothing like what happened with Katrina. The treatment of the disaster was nothing short of despicable, and while our situation wasn't as bad, the government is still basically useless when it comes to helping people who survived natural disasters.
Claudia's family is her mother, her younger brother and sister who are twins, and her grandfather. My biggest issue with this book is the author's flimsy reason for keeping the family there. The grandfather recently had surgery, yet he's not bedridden and he does fine living in the attic post-hurricane. There is literally no reason the family couldn't have evacuated. The surgery is never even specified. Pretty weak writing. The younger sister Zoe is an obnoxious brat.
I'll likely never reread this one.
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the graphic novel format. They're very thin and for the price, I would have expected a least a little bit longer. The book version seems to tell a lot more story. Still, it's neat to see a historical fiction graphic novel.
Ting's story is set during the flood of the Yangtze back in 1931. I had no idea this had ever happened, so I always love to learn something new. No matter how short the story is, I still learned.
Spoiler: This actually does end well, which is probably not very realistic.
Still fun to see the ancient world included.
I liked this one, though it went by too fast. Definitely my big complaint about these. They're too damn short.
