The Sweetest Spell

I brought this book home by mistake but once I started reading I couldn't put it down. I had judged it by the cover and to me it looked like a not too original love story. There is a love story in here but there is also so much more. Suzanne Selfors has an incredibly original story here. These are the first sentences of the book:

I was born a dirt-scratcher's daughter.
     I had no say in the matter. No one asked, "Wouldn't you rather be born to a cobbler or a bard? How about a nobleman or a king? Are you certain that dirt-scratching is the right job for you?"
                  If someone had asked, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have answered, "My heart is set on being a dirt-scratcher. I'm really looking forward to a life soured by hunger, backbreaking work, and ignorance. That sounds delightful. Sign me up."

Just after she was born, Emmeline was brought to the forest and left to die because of her deformed foot that was thought to be a curse on her village. She was kept alive by some cows. Yes, cows. She lives but is shunned by everyone and then the village is flooded and everything washes away including her and the adventure begins. She finds a safe place, realizes she has the gift of being the only one that can make chocolate from milk, gets kidnapped for her magic and on and on.

The Sweetest Spell is an adventure with love and magic and so many places rich and poor to experience. Read this book!
     
             

Secret Saturdays

What choices do you make when saving face is your top priority?

I met the author, Torrey Maldonado, at the Young Adult Literature Symposium in November 2012. He interrupted someone else's session by being loud and silly, not just once but several times. I was prepared not to like his book, but I was wrong.

Mr Maldonado gets us inside the head of a 12-year-old, half Puerto Rican, half Black kid from the Red Hook Projects in Brooklyn. The dialog rings true and the descriptions of the hallways or their mothers or other students shows us the author is writing about part of his own middle school years.

I like that a male author is trying to show his readers the importance of friendship over always trying to save face. He

Almost Perfect

I haven't written since I went to the YA Literature Symposium, probably because I had too much to say. The symposium was the best conference I've attended because it was all about young adult authors and young adult books.
There was a mixer the first night and someone wrote on my sheet that he 'wrote a YA book'. Without looking up I told him he couldn't just put that down without actually writing a book. I looked up to see Brian Katcher, winner of the 2011 Stonewall Book Award for Almost Perfect.
If you want to read this book don't read this review as the next line has a spoiler.

This book hit me deeply and it was the first book I've read with a transgender character. Logan is an eighteen-year-old high school student in Missouri. He's depressed because his girlfriend cheated on him and now they've split. He notices the new girl in town, Sage, and they become involved in a friendship that they both want to be something more. Sage finally tells Logan she is biologically a boy.

I felt I knew these two characters and felt what they felt. I learned so much about what a transgender teen has to go through just to get through the day. This book will stay with you.