Pause

For personal reasons, as of today, ColorfulBookReviews will be going on an indefinite hiatus. I may still post a few reviews here and there as I would like to finish all the review copies sent to me if I’m able. All past reviews will remain up and available, but comments may have a long delay for posting and responses.

Many thanks to all who shared and commented and all those who have encouraged me to keep working on this. If my life circumstances change in the future I may return, so feel free to stay subscribed.

Sincere thanks to all my readers.

Review: Girl Named Faithful Plum

A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream by Richard Bernstein.
Originally Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, New York, 2011.
My edition Yearling, Random House Children’s Books, New York, 2012.
Middle grade (YA?) nonfiction, 272 pages.
Lexile: 1080L .
AR Level: 6.6 (worth 11.0 points) .

In 1978, an eleven year old girl traveled from her small town on the northern border of China to the Beijing Dance Academy for their open auditions, along with sixty thousand other applicants. Against all odds, she managed to be one of the twelve girls chosen – but that was just the start of her troubles.

A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream by Richard Bernstein.

Zhongmei spent years in training, and had a long career, but this story focuses mainly on preparing to audition and her first year at school. About half the book focuses on her journey to even make it to auditions and then her progress through the seven layers of audition. The second half covers her first year at the school, and finally an epilogue tells what happened to her after.

Bernstein employs a number of timeline skips to maintain the pacing, although he’s not always successful. His most frequent device is the letters sent back and forth between Zhongmei and her beloved da-jie Zhongqin. He also occasionally has Zhongmei think back on past events. At some points there are skips forward, when reasonable within the story.

The Logan Family Saga

Please note that as of this writing I’ve only reread a few books in the series since starting this blog, so my understanding of some aspects might change as I read more.

Oh, the Logan Family Saga! Both the joy and the frustration of many a school librarian – because this series is excellent historical fiction, and because it’s rather difficult to get a handle on the series. Because I plan to review several, if not all, of the Logan Family books, it seems more expedient to make one post about the series order which can then be referred to in all future reviews.

Review: From the Mountains to the Sea

From the Mountains to the Sea: Early Hawaiian Life by Julie Stewart Williams, illustrated by Robin Yoko Racoma.
Kamehameha Schools Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997.
Middle grade non-fiction, 178 pages.
Not leveled.
NOTE: I read a physical copy of this book, and this review is based on the print book. However, it is also available as a free ebook, currently at this link: https://ulukau.org/ulukau-books/?a=d&d=EBOOK-ENGLISH.2.1.1&e=——-haw-20–1–txt-txPT———– .

A classic school text on early Hawaii.

From the Mountains to the Sea: Early Hawaiian Life by Julie Stewart Williams, illustrated by Robin Yoko Racoma.

I came across this text some time ago through the acquaintance of a friend who was offloading some books before moving back to the islands. My friend generously passed many books that her family had read or weren’t interested in to us. I’m always interested in titles from small presses or exploring cultures I don’t know too much about, so this was fascinating to me even though it was dry at points.

This particular book was also especially interesting because I’ve always heard that there aren’t accessible texts for young readers about indigenous life pre-European contact. This is an area I’ve been actively seeking out books on, so it was rather shocking to find one that was not only published in the 1990s, but is part of a series. Indeed, after exploring the ulukau.org link above, I’ve discovered that several books from Kamehameha Schools Press are available there, and hope to review some others which would be cost-prohibitive to have sent to the Midwest.

50+ More Diverse Middle Grade Fantasy Novels

Way back in 2017, I started working on a list of diverse MG fantasy novels.  It took three years to compile the first list, and since many books on it begin a series, it has only been growing ever since.  But finding a stopping point was also difficult because I kept coming across more books.  Certainly there were some I’d overlooked or had not been able to access, but there was another reason my list of recommended diverse fantasy novels was quadruple what I’d scraped together five years ago – new releases!

We are living in a time when MG fantasy is rapidly diversifying.  With the success of a few bold publishers and authors, others seem more willing to consider diverse fantasy, or are just interested in market share of an uncornered niche.  Or maybe even, people have been pushing for diversity a long time and the environment is finally right.  I’m not sure why now but this explosion of diverse literature is wonderful.

Today there is no excuse for a fantasy list that does not have even a single book with a character of color, let alone diverse authors.   And there are enough books and series to make not just one, but many lists of diverse MG fantasy!  I did make one change – on this list I included a few white fantasy novels with main characters who had disabilities, were LGBTQ, or had diverse living circumstances. This list also includes books in translation, and a handful of out-of-print but (as of this writing) still obtainable books.

Review: Double Cross

Double Cross (Twintuition #4) by Tia and Tamera Mowry.
Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2018.
MG fantasy, 202 pages.
Lexile: 600L .
AR Level: 4.2 (worth 5.0 points) .
NOTE: Review will contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

The final installment of a quartet about tween twins with visions of the future.

Twintuition: Double Cross by Tia and Tamera Mowry.

I’m glad I persisted with this series as this last book was definitely the best of the four. Honestly, if the social hijinks of sixth graders don’t highly interest, an older reader could probably skip ahead and read just this book without missing too much. All the major plot points important to this finale are summarized within the text somewhere anyway.

Board Book Review: Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence in the City by Susan Goldman Rubin.
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 2009.
Board book, 24 pages.
Not leveled.

A board book presenting eleven of famous artist Jacob Lawrence’s paintings for the youngest readers.

Jacob Lawrence in the City, written by Susan Goldman Rubin.

It’s fitting that this would be our eleventh board book since it showcases eleven different paintings by Jacob Lawrence. I remember when I started this challenge worrying that it would be difficult to find nonfiction board books that were diverse. Instead I now find that there are plenty (and new ones being published each year), but it sometimes takes a bit more hunting since these are not always part of specifically diverse series (as many of the fictional board books are).

Review: Ancestor Approved

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith.
Heartdrum, HarperCollins, New York, 2021, my edition 2022.
MG short story anthology, 312 pages including back matter.
Lexile: not yet leveled
AR Level: 5.0 (worth 9.0 points) .
NOTE: This review is longer than usual since I discuss each piece and the book as a whole. Also see note on accent marks.

An anthology of pieces centered around one powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Despite having left school library life some time ago, I still get excited to see new collections and anthologies like this one published, because they are such important additions to the classroom. Ancestor Approved manages to take this to the next level by having the stories and poems all connected, despite most being by different authors. If it’s difficult as a reader to wrap your head around the many linkages and connections, just imagine the work Cynthia Leitich Smith did to bring this book together!

There are 18 different pieces by 16 different authors (and Nicole Neidhardt who contributed the excellent cover illustration is also rightfully acknowledged). Most are short stories although the book closes and opens with poems. There’s also considerable supportive matter, including a foreword, glossary broken down by story, notes, acknowledgements, and brief biographies of all contributors. As is my custom for anthologies and collections, I’ll discuss each of the individual pieces briefly before returning to the discussion of the work as a whole.

Review: Haroun & the Sea of Stories

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.
Granta Books London, Penguin Books, New York, originally published 1990, my edition 1991.
MG fantasy, 216 pages.
Lexile: 940L .
AR Level: 6.9 (worth 7.0 points) .
NOTE: This is longer than my usual review, as I had much to say about this book. The final paragraphs will contain content warnings and my overall thoughts as usual.

Twelve year old Haroun’s father has fallen into a pit of deep despair and he himself can’t focus for longer than eleven minutes at a time. This causes a problem when Rashid Kalifa the Ocean of Notions is expected to speak at a politician’s rally and can’t perform. Catching a Water Genie uninstalling the tap from the Sea of Stories makes Haroun question if his father’s stories might actually have an element of truth to them, and he is determined to set his family right.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.

I wanted to love this book but did not. Rushdie has good elements in an increasingly frustrating telling. The Biggest Thing for me, this Reviewer, were the Lots of Unnecessary Capitals (LUC) and the Frequency of Pointless, Unclear, Initialisms (FoPUI). Was that sentence nearly unreadable for you? Now imagine an entire book. If I wanted all the nouns to be capitalized, I would read it in German.

It was difficult to finish this book because of the random unneeded capitalizations in particular. If I had not already purchased this and the sequel, I would probably have given up. Eventually I pushed through by rewarding myself with a different book after every two chapters read. It is one of the few fiction books reviewed here that I have not fully read twice.

2023 Blogging Goals

This year I’m keeping it very simple and quantifiable for my goals.

Review ten board books.

This probably seems like a stretch given that I just went two years without posting any board book reviews! But in years past I did about ten a year. That’s one per month considering that I plan to take two months off from posting.

Review ten picture books.

Again, I haven’t done that for two years either, but that was more pandemic-related and not having access to good cameras. The photography situation has cleared up now so I think this is a reasonable goal to consider. I’m not particularly looking at fiction or nonfiction, I just want to get back in the habit of reviewing these as well.

Review ten or more graphic novels.

Yes, there’s a theme of ten here! That’s because now that I’m trying to routinely take two months off each year, ten fits easily and manageably into my posting schedule. For each of these first three I’m hoping to post approximately one a month.

Review at least 25 books for my next diverse MG fantasy novel list.

Considering that I’ll only be posting during about 42 weeks, but also that I have many continuing series to keep reviewing, this works out to roughly one MG fantasy review per week. We’ll see if I can keep that up even with planned breaks! I’m not going to attempt to post my next list in 2023, as it seems that every other year is a lot more reasonable – it’s a lot to review 40-60 books in a year, even if they’re middle grade novels. If I get 25 done this year that will put me on track to post the next list at the end of 2024.

Take two months off from blogging (not necessarily consecutive).

This has been a goal of mine for a while, I think taking off June and December would be idea, but it has yet to work out quite that way.

Review ten works of nonfiction.

Left to my own devices, I often tend to go for fiction. I’ve gotten back into the habit of reading nonfiction again in 2022 and want to keep that going. This can overlap with the other challenges that are format- but not genre-specific, so I will count nonfiction picture books or graphic novels.

Do you have any blogging or reading goals for 2023? I almost never do reading challenges anymore, although they are fun at times. These days my reading has to be very flexible to adjust to changing life plans.