Review: "Black Brother, Black Brother," by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Black Brother, Black Brother is on the Texas Bluebonnet list for the 2021-22 school year. This middle-grade novel is set at Middlefield Prep near Boston, Massachusetts. The story opens with a young man waiting to speak to the headmaster at his school. You quickly learn that the person in the office is Donte Ellison, the book's narrator, a young Black middle schooler who has been falsely accused of throwing a pencil at a classmate. The scene quickly escalates and cops are called and Donte is taken to jail.

Donte is a bi-racial student at Middlefield Prep. He is the son of a Black mother, a White father, and a younger brother to a star athlete whose skin tone is lighter than his own dark skin. The book explores themes of racial injustice, colorism, privilege, and prejudice with the art of fencing as a metaphor. Donte picks up fencing to help him deal with the anxieties of being one of the only Black students at this school and in turn, learns lessons about life. 

Jewell Parker Rhodes's tone is hopeful and her writing in this book is very straightforward. It is written to make it easy for its middle-grade readers to understand the nuances that she is writing about. This is definitely a great book that parents can read alongside their children to open up discussions about the books' themes. For further discussion and learning, I highly recommend the podcast episode from Throughline titled the Invention of Race.

Review: "What Would Frida Do," by Arianna Davis

Ariana Davis is the digital director for O, The Oprah Magazine, and has had a lifelong love for renowned painter Frida Kahlo. This biography of Frida is written as an instruction manual on how to live boldly like the artist. It is not a chronological tale of Frida’s life. Instead, the book is divided into ten chapters representing who Frida was and how you as the reader can exemplify these characteristics in your own life.  Chapter titles include: Confidence, Pain, Creativity, Style, Love, Heartbreak, Sex, Identity, Friendship, and Viva La Vida. Each chapter contains snippets of Frida’s life that correlate to the theme, followed by a deeper dive into a particular aspect of her life similar to an inset in a magazine article. Each chapter ends with a section titled “What would Frida do…” and gives the reader advice on how to incorporate the theme into their own life. 

Davis’s digital design background is evident in the book, with beautiful art throughout. One of my favorite parts of the book is the artist’s featured quotes accompanied by beautiful black and white floral motifs.

The writing is a straightforward, comprehensive look into Frida’s life, giving the reader an intimate look at the significance behind so many of Frida’s paintings and self-portraits. I love Frida Kahlo and have had the opportunity to visit Casa Azul in Mexico City, but  I still learned new things about Frida. My only complaint with the book is that some facts are repetitive between chapters, and as a reader, I didn’t find it necessary. Davis’s admiration of Frida is evident in her writing about the artist, and I love that she feels Frida’s presence throughout her writing journey. I highly recommend this book to anyone that appreciates Frida Kahlo’s art and struggles. It is a beautiful tribute to the inspiring artist’s life and an excellent guide for anyone who would like to live as boldly as Frida did.

****originally submitted as a class assignment for INFO 5410/UNT-Masters of Library Science

Review: "Saint X", Alexis Schaitkin

 

One of the perks of being a Little Free Library steward is getting books donated and reading them first. In the past year, Celadon Books, an imprint of Macmillan books, created a program with the LFL organization to send books to stewards to promote their authors' works. Usually, I put them straight in the LFL so that they can get read by others. When Saint X arrived in the mail, the cover art quickly caught my attention. Yes, I will admit that I do judge a book by its cover. I scanned the back cover to read the synopsis, and I was quickly intrigued by the story and just had to read it before passing it along. The book did not disappoint.

The story opens up on a fictional island in the Caribbean, where affluent, White people come to experience the island's culture from a distance. When Alison, a college freshman on vacation with her family, disappears, the novel really begins. The aftermath that this experience has on her family, especially her younger sister and the suspects in her disappearance, is the novel's core. Told in lush language, Schaitkin takes your imagination from Saint X to New York City in vivid detail. The novel is non-linear, going back and forth between memory and present-day to unfold a story about the secrets we keep and how no one really knows another's truth, even you, yourself. While there are elements of suspense this element is just a small part of the story.  I really enjoyed Schaitkin's writing style, and her social commentary on how being born into privilege is merely the luck of the draw.  📖🐛🐛🐛🐛