BookDragon Archives - Page 152 of 230

YUMMY: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke

19 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

True stories about kids with tragic endings are undoubtedly effective in fueling parents' worst nightmares. This one proves especially haunting. Six years ago today, "Yummy" Sandifer made the cover of Time magazine. Along with his mugshot were the words, "The Short, Violent Life of Robert 'Yummy'...

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

18 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Marcelo marks quite a memorable moment in our family's dynamics: For the first time ever, our daughter actually shut us out with her headphones (I realize it's coming relatively late in modern teenage life), demanding that she be able to finish this book right now (it was...

Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Michael Emmerich

17 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

Manazuru is the first of Akutagawa Prize-winning Japanese writer Hiromi Kawakami's novels to be translated into English. It's one of those unexpected titles that wear better with time; it needs to sort of 'sit' after reading to fully appreciate. While the overall story might initially seem almost...

In front of my house by Marianne Dubuc, translated by Yvette Ghione

16 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

"On a little hill, behind a brown fence, under a big oak tree, is ...

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers (vol. 4) by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Akemi Wegmüller

15 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation

No men? No problem. Women can and will adjust to anything, including getting quickly used to power! This entertaining gender-bender series – an alternate history of ancient Japan – continues with the ascension of women to all leadership positions, including inheriting the Shogunate. What begins as "merely...

The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault

14 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Latin American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction

María Luz's family is in trouble. Their land in the hills of Honduras, which provides them with the corn and beans they need to live, has "lost its goodness." In order for the family to survive, María Luz's father must leave home and find work....

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel

13 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Japanese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation

For decades now, Haruki Murakami has been one of my all-time favorite novelists ever; back when my grad-schooled brain was more nimble, I even read a few of his titles in their original Japanese. While this mind has considerably weakened since then, at least the muscles are...

Betsy Red Hoodie by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by Scott Nash

12 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Eight years after making her debut in Betsy Who Cried Wolf!, young shepherd Betsy is back ...

Betsy Who Cried Wolf! by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by Scott Nash

12 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Possibly best known for her award-winning, mega bestselling Ella Enchanted (the book, by the way, is far better than the film, ahem!), Gail Carson Levine is certainly not unfamiliar with rewriting, re-spinning fairy tales. This one – not unlike "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" –...

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

10 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian

On this eve of 9/11, I'm in a frustrated funk. Regardless of political, religious, cultural, or ethnic affiliations, I think most Americans are shaking their heads at the state of the world, and definitely not shaking enough hands; not enough of us have been able...

20th Century Boys (vol. 10) by Naoki Urasawa, with the cooperation of Takashi Nagasaki, English adaptation by Akemi Wegmüller

10 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Never mind the series title, it's girl power all the way: locked up in church with a bursting audience as witnesses, young Kanna manages to get the biggest gangster bosses to call a truce and band together to protect the imminently-visiting Pope. Meanwhile, Koizumi Kyoko has...

Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat

09 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Middle Grade Readers, Southeast Asian American, Thai American

Bobby Ellis-Chan – skateboarder, goldfish trainer, football-challenged son of legendary NFL star "The Freezer" who is now a stay-at-home dad – is back. He's a year older and a grade higher from when he made his entertaining debut in Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally), brought to you once...

Library Wars: Love & War (vol. 2) by Kiiro Yumi, original concept by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Kinami Watabe

08 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Here's an entertaining title just in time for upcoming Banned Books Week – this year, it's September 25 through October 2, which means you've even got time to read Volume 1 and catch up before grabbing this latest installment. Here's the set up: in the not-too-distant...

The Typist by Michael Knight

07 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific

Francis Vancleave – mostly known as Van – has survived World War II behind a desk working as a typist for the military higher-ups. His skill – something his mother taught him as a teenager on nights his father was away working as a tugboat captain –...

Amulet | Book Three: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi

05 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific

My tween son grabbed the third installment of Kazu Kibuishi's inventive, adventurous series before I could even say 'three,' then lamented at the six months he would have to wait for Book Four, Book Four: "Do I really have to wait so long?" followed with "Can't...

African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 by Charlene Regester [in Library Journal]

04 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Biography, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost

Charlene Regester (African & Afro-American studies, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill) documents the lives and careers of nine African American actresses working before the Civil Rights era whose “contributions to mainstream cinema have been either minimized or erased in the histories of Hollywood cinema.” Madame...

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, translated by Sherif Hatata

03 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab, Egyptian, Fiction, Translation

Writer/playwright/activist/psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi is one of those women who seem to scare men – especially those who purport to have something called 'authority.' She's been fired, banned, accused, threatened, imprisoned because of what is ultimately her simple belief that all women are worthy human beings...

Spork by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

02 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

First off, Spork is one of the cutest, most clever books on mixed-race issues to land on my desk in a long time. Both story and illustrations create a perfect package of ticklish, delightful fun ...

Gush by Yo Hemmi, translated by Giles Murray [in Library Journal]

01 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

If the eponymous story of this three-novella collection by prestigious Akutagawa Prize winner Hemmi seems familiar, that's because both Cannes and Toronto film festivals screened the celluloid version in 2001 with a more literal translation of the Japanese title, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge,...

Koko Be Good by Jen Wang

31 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

When I first read Jen Wang’s spirited debut graphic novel, I couldn't help but be reminded of how quirky, unique, and just plain delightful Melanie Griffith once was in Jonathan Demme's 1986 film, Something Wild. Not that the plots are overly similar, but that contagious wild-child spirit infuses...

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