Monthly Archives:: March 2017

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

5 Books Carrie Mac Wishes Were Around When She Was Growing Up

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Hello and welcome to Xpresso Reads’ tour stop for 10 Things I Can See From Here. Today, author Carrie Mac shares 5 books she wishes were around when she was growing up! Her list is full of many wonderful recs (and some new to me titles) so I am definitely piling up on those books! I hope you’ll check the books and 10 Things I Can See From Here!

PLEASE GIVE IT UP FOR, Carrie Mac!

I’ve picked books aimed at younger readers, say 8-12-years-old or so because that’s when kids need to see the people they are, or will become, represented in books. When they don’t—because the book hasn’t been written or they’re not allowed to read it—that’s when feelings of isolation really set in, just in time for adolescence to kick in and kick ass. If kids are armed with reflections of themselves and the person they might become, they will feel less alone, and it will be less likely that adolescence will be able to demolish them.

George – Alex Gino

A middle grade story about a little girl who desperately wants to play Charlotte in the school play, except that everyone else thinks she’s a boy. If kids read this, they’re already half way up the ladder of gender understanding.

Zita the Space Girl – Ben Hatke

Girl hero in outer space! Aliens! Evil! Best friend needs rescue! Series! No dumb tropes!

 


Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community
– By my lovely friend Robin Stevenson.

A Pride primer for middle grade readers. Knowledge = understanding. Understand it younger, then all the diversity part is about celebrating differences, not highlighting them as less-than or weird.

 

Sex is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings and YOU – Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth

A comic-style book about bodies and gender and sexuality aimed at middle grade kids but perfect for everyone. Sex is a Funny Word features kids and folks and families of all makeups, orientations and identities. I think every kid should have this book. And every parent and caregiver too. This book and Silverberg’s What Makes a Baby are two must-haves when it comes to opening conversations with kids that includes all the ways babies and families and love and sex and gender present.

Better Nate than Ever – Tim Federle

A boy falls in love with Broadway and will do anything it takes to get there, defying gender stereotypes along the way and introducing kids to the world of theatre through the eyes of a small town kid with big sparkly, shimmering dreams.

About the Book

5 Books Carrie Mac Wishes Were Around When She Was Growing Up10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac
Published by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers on February 28th, 2017
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQIA, Mental Health, YA
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

Perfect for fans of Finding Audrey and Everything, Everything, this is the poignant and uplifting story of Maeve, who is dealing with anxiety while falling in love with a girl who is not afraid of anything.

Think positive.
Don’t worry; be happy.
Keep calm and carry on.

Maeve has heard it all before. She’s been struggling with severe anxiety for a long time, and as much as she wishes it was something she could just talk herself out of, it’s not. She constantly imagines the worst, composes obituaries in her head, and is always ready for things to fall apart. To add to her troubles, her mom—the only one who really gets what Maeve goes through—is leaving for six months, so Maeve will be sent to live with her dad in Vancouver.

Vancouver brings a slew of new worries, but Maeve finds brief moments of calm (as well as even more worries) with Salix, a local girl who doesn’t seem to worry about anything. Between her dad’s wavering sobriety, her very pregnant stepmom insisting on a home birth, and her bumbling courtship with Salix, this summer brings more catastrophes than even Maeve could have foreseen. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?



About the Author



CARRIE MAC is an award-winning Canadian novelist making her US debut. She lives in East Vancouver – where this story takes place- with her partner and two children, overlooking the shipyards and with a great view of the crows flying home to roost.

 

 

Follow the Blog Tour

February 20 – Butter My Books
February 21 – The Compulsive Reader
February 22 – Take Me Away to A Great Read
February 23 – The Mod Podge Bookshelf
February 24 – Bookhounds YA
February 27thNick and Nereyda’s Infinite Booklist
Adventures in YA Publishing
February 28thRamblings of the Perpetual New Girl
March 1stReaders in Wonderland
March 2ndYA Wednesdays
March 3rdHere’s to Happy Endings
March 4th: Adventures in YA Publishing
March 6thNo More Grumpy Bookseller
March 7thA Midsummer Night’s Read
March 8thRainy Day Coffee and Books
March 9thThe Fandom
March 10thPicture Books to YA and Everything in Be”Tween”
March 13thBookworm Everlasting
March 14thThe Moral of Our Stories
March 15- Fangirlish
March 16- The Young Folks
March 17- Fiktshun
March 20-YA Books Central
March 21- Xpresso Reads
March 22- A Dream Within A Dream

Fresh Batch (March 19th-25th)

Fresh Batch (March 19th-25th)

Posted by on 03/18/2017 • 0 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Shadow Run AdriAnne Strickland & Michael Miller Series: Kaitan Chronicles #1 Publication date: March 21st 2017by Delacorte Press

Goodreads Purchase

“Firefly” meets DUNE in this action-packed sci-fi adventure about a close-knit, found family of a crew navigating a galaxy of political intrigue and resource-driven power games.

Nev has just joined the crew of the starship Kaitan Heritage as the cargo loader. His captain, Qole, is the youngest-ever person to command her own ship, but she brooks no argument from her crew of orphans, fugitives, and con men. Nev can’t resist her, even if her ship is an antique.

As for Nev, he’s…

Fresh Batch (March 12th-18th)

Fresh Batch (March 12th-18th)

Posted by on 03/11/2017 • 2 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Hunted Meagan Spooner Publication date: March 14th 2017by HarperTeen

Goodreads Purchase

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman….

Fresh Batch (March 5th-11th)

Fresh Batch (March 5th-11th)

Posted by on 03/04/2017 • 3 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

You’re Welcome, Universe Whitney Gardner Publication date: March 7th 2017by Knopf

Goodreads Purchase

A vibrant, edgy, fresh new YA voice for fans of More Happy Than Not and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, packed with interior graffiti.

When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.

Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast…

Diverse Books Out February 2017

Posted by on 03/02/2017 • 6 Comments

Hello and welcome to the February round up of diverse releases! Let me know if any of these have bad rep or if there are any books that I missed. We want this list to be as complete and accurate as possible while also making sure it doesn’t feature any books with bad rep. We will also be pointing out the books we know for sure are #ownvoices.

 

1. A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstorm

Release Date: February 7th

Goodreads | Buy

Interracial romance + deals with mental health.

 

2. Wintersong by S.Jae Jones

Release Date: Feb 7th

Goodreads | Buy

Korean-American author

 

3. Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza

Release Date: Feb 7th

Goodreads | Buy

Filipino-American author + not-white main characters as cannon