Sparrow by Sarah Moon

From Goodreads,

"Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Brooklyn bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that's made school a lonely experience for her. It's made LIFE a lonely experience.

But when the one teacher who really understood her -- Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, a woman who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she'd love -- is killed in a freak car accident, Sparrow's world unravels and she's found on the roof of her school in an apparent suicide attempt.

With the help of an insightful therapist, Sparrow finally reveals the truth of her inner life. And it's here that she discovers an outlet in Rock & Roll music..."

Goodreads - Sparrow

I tend to find myself drawn to books with themes of mental illness.  I enjoy seeing the inner workings of the mind of someone with an illness.  When I read the summary for this book I felt like this book was a perfect fit for me.  After reading I now realize that this book wasn't centered around mental illness, but I loved it just the same.

Sparrow is about a girl who is assumed to be attempting suicide after being found standing on the roof of her school.  Sparrow soon learns that everything is not okay and that in itself is okay.  She starts going to a therapist and starts working toward healing things with her mom and more importantly with herself.  Sparrow also finds that she has a deep love for music, which allows for the opportunity to step outside her comfort zone and attend a rock camp for girls. 

This book was based on a misunderstanding.  Sparrow was found on the roof of her school and everyone thought she was attempting suicide.  However, Sparrow was trying to disconnect from the world and "fly away" with the birds.  After the entire misunderstanding, Sparrow has to go to counseling to work with a therapist.  I love that this book normalizes therapy.  There is such a stigma around going to a therapist.  This book made going to a therapist as normal as going to the grocery store.  On top of that, Sparrow doesn't have a mental illness.  She has social anxiety and doesn't know how to handle her emotions.  These are things that I have experienced myself.  This book made me want to have my own therapist to talk to weekly about the things going on in my life and to get help on managing my emotions and feelings. 

There were a few things that I didn't like about the book.  One was there was some choice language that felt unnecessary to the story itself.  Another was that the summer camp was a bit extreme.  It was a month-long summer camp.  I don't know anywhere that has a month-long sleepaway summer camp.  I also felt like they really went extreme on the characters at camp.  They were all over the top with their descriptions of shaved heads and tattoos.  Also, when the counselors were introduced they all used their preferred pronouns which felt like an added piece to say that the book had LGTBQ tolerance.  Again, it wasn't necessary to the story itself and it would have been better omitted.

Overall, this book was an excellent read and it had a lovely flow.  I loved Sparrow and her confusion about what was happening in her life and with friends.  I give this 4 stars and recommend it to people who want a good read about social anxiety and seeing a counselor. 

Just Under the Clouds by Melissa Sarno

From Goodreads,

"Can you still have a home if you don't have a house?

Always think in threes and you'll never fall, Cora's father told her when she was a little girl. Two feet, one hand. Two hands, one foot. That was all Cora needed to know to climb the trees of Brooklyn.

But now Cora is a middle schooler, a big sister, and homeless. Her mother is trying to hold the family together after her father's death, and Cora must look after her sister, Adare, who's just different, their mother insists. Quick to smile, Adare hates wearing shoes, rarely speaks, and appears untroubled by the question Cora can't help but ask: How will she find a place to call home?

After their room at the shelter is ransacked, Cora's mother looks to an old friend for help, and Cora finally finds what she has been looking for: Ailanthus altissima, the "tree of heaven," which can grow in even the worst conditions. It sets her on a path to discover a deeper truth about where she really belongs."

Goodreads - Just Under the Clouds

I always set a reading challenge for myself.  Unfortunately, I didn't meet my goal for 2019, but I am determined to meet my goal of 52 books in 2020.  That comes out to a book a week.  I've also agreed with myself that I'm going to read at least 50 pages each night.  This is a fairly recent purchase and I'm excited to share my review of this book.

Favorite quote from Just Under The Clouds,

"I know how it's possible to love someone you can't understand."

Just Under the Clouds is a moving novel about Cora and her sister Adare.  Cora and Adare are homeless and bounce from house to house and couch to couch.  Cora has to keep up with Adare after school while her mom is at work, and that proves difficult because Adare is special.  Cora wishes that Adare was just normal and that school was easier.  Eventually Cora, Adare, and their mom end up at a wealthy friend's house while they try to get back on their feet.  During this time Cora discovers the "tree of heaven" that her father was studying before he died.  The tree is able to withstand even the harshest environment, much like Cora.

This was a good book and I feel that it tackled a child's perspective of moving house to house and never knowing when it would finally be home.  I think the big piece of this book was Cora finding herself and the connection with the tree of heaven.  Cora is much like the tree of heaven in the fact that she is learning how to grow despite the harsh conditions she has to deal with.  This was really an inspirational point because we all have times in our lives where we don't think we are going to make it another day.  This tree is able to withstand poor conditions and yet it still grows and thrives.  This is what we as humans need to learn how to do too.  We need to learn that there are hard and difficult times and life, but we have to just persevere and keep moving forward because eventually there will be good days.

While I loved the overarching message of persevering I had some serious problems with the educational side of this book.  My biggest problem was with Adare's school.  They just left Adare on the steps after school, even though there wasn't anyone there to pick her up yet.  It is clear that Adare is in special classes and that she is very vulnerable.  I was so bothered that a child was stuck out on the steps and that when Cora was looking for her one day they didn't know where she was.  Schools, especially elementary, keep very close track to who picks up kids and where they are going after school.  It was just a very unrealistic depiction of elementary schools.

This was a quick read.  It had more of an open ending with the opportunity for a second book, but I honestly don't think it would be a good decision.  This book does have ties of homelessness and the loss of a parent.  I give this just 3 stars.  It was good, but it had no real fire or flare to it.  I recommend this to anyone who needs just a gentle tug on their heartstrings.

The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari

From Goodreads,

"Amber Sand is not a witch. The Sand family Wicca gene somehow leapfrogged over her. But she did get one highly specific magical talent: she can see true love. As a matchmaker, Amber's pretty far down the sorcery food chain (even birthday party magicians rank higher), but after five seconds of eye contact, she can envision anyone's soul mate.

Amber works at her mother's magic shop--Windy City Magic--in downtown Chicago, and she's confident she's seen every kind of happy ending there is: except for one--her own. (The Fates are tricky jerks that way.) So when Charlie Blitzman, the mayor's son and most-desired boy in school, comes to her for help finding his father's missing girlfriend, she's distressed to find herself falling for him. Because while she can't see her own match, she can see his--and it's not Amber. How can she, an honest peddler of true love, pursue a boy she knows full well isn't her match?

The Best Kind of Magic is set in urban Chicago and will appeal to readers who long for magic in the real world. With a sharp-witted and sassy heroine, a quirky cast of mystical beings, and a heady dose of adventure, this novel will have you laughing out loud and questioning your belief in happy endings."

Goodreads - The Best Kind of Magic

I'm pretty open to reading any book, but I have always found mythical and magical books a struggle to read.  I read the first book in the Harry Potter series last year and really enjoyed it.  However, I had seen all of the movies when I read the book, which I feel made it a little easier to understand.  This book had a catchy cover and I decided to conquer it, especially since it had magic in the title.

Amber is from a prominent line of witches, except she isn't a witch.  Amber is a matchmaker.  She can look into the eyes of someone and instantly see their soul mate.  Charlie, a classmate, comes to Amber asking for help finding his soon-to-be stepmom who has gone missing.  Amber spends time trying to help him and in turn, sees his perfect match.  Amber tells herself to focus on the task and not fall head over heels for him.  Unfortunately for Amber, that is easier said than done.

When I first started this book it was a bit of a struggle.  It felt slow and I couldn't get into it.  I finally made myself sit down one evening and just read to at least page 100.  In that, I really got into the book.  This book is serious at times but has a very light and fun relationship building with Charlie and Amber.  I really liked the characters Amber and Amani.  Amber was a matchmaker born into a family of witches.  She was the odd duck in the family and I absolutely connect with that.  I've always felt like the odd kid of my family because I've been driven by such different goals than having kids as soon as possible.  I understood how Amber felt when Amber's mom would make comments about her not being a witch.  Some of my siblings have made comments about me going to college, and it leaves you with a weird feeling.  Amani was another character that I loved in the book because she was the selfless friend who would go to the end of the earth for Amber.  I like to think that I am similar to that.  Any of my friends could call and need something and I would help them the best I could.  I really wish Amani would have delved more into Amber's future because that would have been the best thing she could do as Amber's best friend.

There was some colorful language in this book and at times it felt unnecessary.  This book also has clear ties to Wiccan rituals and beliefs, but it never felt forced.  There are obvious magical creatures throughout the book such as leprechauns, goblins, witches, and so on.  Some people are uncomfortable with this, but it was all light and fun in my opinion. 

This was a good book and I had originally planned on reading just this one.  However, I do plan on reading the next two books in the series.  This is a fun and romantic read.  I give it 4 stars.

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom

tFrom Goodreads,

""Mitch Albom has done it again with this moving memoir of love and loss. You can’t help but fall for Chika. A page-turner that will no doubt become a classic.” --Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club and The Art of Memoir

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tuesdays With Morrie comes Mitch Albom’s most personal story to date: an intimate and heartwarming memoir about what it means to be a family and the young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart. 

Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.

With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.”

Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.

Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made."

Goodreads - Finding Chicka

Ever since I read Tuesdays With Morrie in high school, Mitch Albom has easily been one of my favorite authors.  His books are always so thoughtfully written and I feel that they make me question things around me.  My mom told me that she had picked up a new book by him and I knew that I had to get a copy for myself to read.

This book is Mitch Albom's journey back into nonfiction as he tells the story of Chika.  Mitch operates an orphanage in Haiti which is where Chika was left at just three years old.  But soon Chika was having health problems that made Mitch and his wife make the decision to bring Chika to America to hopefully get better care.  Mitch first saw it as a job, but soon found that Chika had completed their family and was a piece that was missing in their life.  Finding Chika is the story of Mitch trying to understand and deal with loss and love in life. 

All of Mitch Albom's books are full of life lessons.  I could reread Tuesdays With Morrie every year and take something completely different away from it.  This book is yet another that I found a nugget of wisdom that really made me stop.  The quote, "The most precious thing you can give someone is your time, Chika, because you can never get it back.  When you don't think about getting it back, you've given it in love."  This quote really stuck with me.  I had a principal who always said, "The most precious thing you can give someone is your time because you can never get it back."  There were extra things that I would do for my kiddos or to make a lesson really "stick".  She always made it seem as if I was wasting my time on silly things.  I also remember talking to her about my boyfriend and the plans we had with each other especially concerning the future, and she said that same quote to me.  But the quote from this book really made me stop and think.  It doesn't matter if I give my time to someone or something, as long as it matters to me.  Who and what I choose to give my time to is my decision, because 98% of the time I'm giving my time out of love.

This book is written in a very unique style, much like Tuesdays With Morrie.  The book rotates from past to present as it tells life lessons and memories of Chika.  The style that it is written in takes some getting used to, but it really tells the whole story.  We can see glimpses into moments that most people take for granted.  I feel like this showed that Chika was just a child and her illness didn't define her.  Albom's writing style also allowed us to get Chika's story, as well as seeing how Mitch was coping with her being gone.  While reading the book I could tell that Chika's passing left a gaping hole in the lives of Mitch and his wife, Janine.  They had altered their calm life to center around Chika and her wild spirit.  In the chapters where Chika "visits", you can tell that Mitch is mourning her and trying to learn how to be a family of two again.   I think this book was very much a way of healing for Mitch, and we the readers were just along for the ride. 

Albom has a very unique writing style, and this book was written a lot like Tuesdays With Morrie.  This book rotates from glimpses of Chika in a specific moment, to the present, to the past while Chika was sick.  Each of these components was just as important as the next as it fully captured Chika's spirit and attitude.  Being able to read a short glimpse of Chika in a specific moment really reminded me that Chika was just a child going through a horrific illness, but yet it didn't bring her down.  There were chapters where Mitch was in the present writing the book and Chika would appear.  This really showed the relationship that Mitch and Chika had.  I definitely feel that Mitch "seeing" Chika was a way for him to cope and deal with the loss that he was experiencing.  The portions of the book that took place in the past told the story of Chika and her fight against DIPG.  Each page and each chapter was written with love and was pieced together in a way that allowed the story to flow and ebb so that the reader was constantly on a roller coaster of emotions. 

This book did not disappoint.  (Mitch Albom's books NEVER disappoint!)  It was full of emotion and real life.  Parents need to read this book.  I don't have kids, but it made me want to stop and cherish every moment I have with my nieces and nephews.  Life happens fast and literally, anything can happen that changes the course of what you had planned.  I give this book 5 stars and recommend it to fans of Albom's or parents who need a good heartfelt read. 

Squint by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown

From Goodreads,

My name is Flint, but everyone in middle school calls me Squint because I’m losing my vision. I used to play football, but not anymore. I haven’t had a friend in a long time. Thankfully, real friends can see the real you, even when you can’t clearly see.

Flint loves to draw. In fact, he’s furiously trying to finish his comic book so he can be the youngest winner of the “Find a Comic Star” contest. He’s also rushing to finish because he has keratoconus—an eye disease that could eventually make him blind.

McKell is the new girl at school and immediately hangs with the popular kids. Except McKell’s not a fan of the way her friends treat this boy named Squint. He seems nice and really talented. He draws awesome pictures of superheroes. McKell wants to get to know him, but is it worth the risk? What if her friends catch her hanging with the kid who squints all the time?

McKell has a hidden talent of her own but doesn’t share it for fear of being judged. Her terminally ill brother, Danny, challenges McKell to share her love of poetry and songwriting. Flint seems like someone she could trust. Someone who would never laugh at her. Someone who is as good and brave as the superhero in Flint’s comic book named Squint.

Squint is the inspiring story of two new friends dealing with their own challenges, who learn to trust each other, believe in themselves, and begin to truly see what matters most.

Goodreads - Squint

I have this really bad habit of shopping Scholastic Reading Clubs like I'm shopping on Amazon.  I will just sit and scroll through the books and add them to my cart or my wishlist.  I tend to read more "girly" books because well... I'm a girl.  The longer I teach the more I have noticed that I need more books that are geared toward boys.  When I saw this book it caught my eye.  After reading the summary I knew it was a book I needed to read and hopefully add to my library.

Squint is about a young boy named Flint who has a rare eye condition that could one day leave him blind.  Flint loves comics and he loves to work on his own comic book.  He is frantically trying to finish his comic before his eyes fail and leave him blind.  In the midst of being an outcast and focusing on his comic, a girl named McKell comes over and sits with him one day at lunch.  Soon one day becomes two which then becomes an adventure.  Flint and McKell quickly become friends, but they soon learn they both have secrets and they both have obstacles to overcome.

This book left me with so many emotions.  I want to first talk about the character Danny and his role in this book.  Danny is McKell's sister and he has progeria, which is a disease that causes a child's body to age fast.  Danny had obstacles in his life, but he managed to make the best out of it and challenge people.  His challenges ranged from being funny to going on a new adventure to making a new friend.  Danny really pushed positivity and his character was hysterical and I felt like I would sit and watch his videos all day if they existed.  I think this positivity is so important because it really pulled multiple characters together.  Danny's positivity helped McKell deal with her challenges of making friends or trying out for the talent show.  But I think Danny's videos and positivity really helped Flint see that his life wasn't as bad as he thought it was and that he should take it day by day.  It really made me stop and think about all the times I've complained about stuff going on, when in reality my life could be a whole lot worse than what it is.  I felt like this positivity message was a big and important vibe in the book.  When the book started to get to a low point it felt like Danny's videos were worked into the story to bring light to the situation at hand.

I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book.  It was well written and there was no inappropriate language.  I do want to talk about Flint and his comic book that he was creating.  I enjoyed getting to read the story while Flint was working on his comic.  I think it would be awesome for Chad Morris and Shelly Brown to create the comic that flint was creating and make it into a graphic novel.  It would be a great opportunity to have that crossover from fiction to the comic existing.

This book was packed with well rounded characters that I felt I could easily relate to and connect with.  The positivity throughout the book really kept me pushing forward and made me want to finish it as quickly as I could.  I think that some of my fifth grade boys are going to really like this book.  I give this 5 stars!