Here's what I read this past month, including what I've been reading to my older son!
Unicorns and Germs by Asia Citro: This sixth book was a great blend of the elements I like about the series — an accessible explanation of the scientific method, mini-problems that need to be solved to resolve the larger issue, and funny character interactions.
Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision by Randy Woodley: This was a meaty book for being under 200 pages, and it took me a while to get through. I found Woodley's approach to Scripture to be both fresh and accessible, a good reminder of why a diversity of voices makes our collective understanding of God richer, though I found it to be heavily weighted toward male perspectives.
Saga, Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: This series continues to be simultaneously compelling and confusing. As certain character groups find one another (for good or ill), the number of independent plot lines to keep up with diminishes, which I hope will make for easier reading in future volumes.
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam: Beam has managed to provide a comprehensive look of the many complexities of the foster care system in under 350 pages. Through a combination of both statistics and stories of a handful of kids and families followed over years, Beam shows how everyone is failed by the system as it functions currently.
Grumplets and Pests by Asia Citro: This one was clever, and I liked the exploration of different options for dealing with garden pests, but I thought the solution to the problem in this book was a little too easy and didn't include the usual trial and error that Zoey goes through in most books. My son was engaged in the story, though!
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie: This is another one where I figured out whodunnit early on, though the details of how and why weren't entirely clear until the end. The solution was slightly on the convoluted side, but not as bad as some, and I appreciated that there were more action scenes than in a lot of Miss Marple mysteries, lending some tension and suspense to the read.
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: This was... honestly pretty terrible. This didn't read like a sequel. This read like Sáenz wanted to write an epilogue to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, but he couldn't decide which direction to go, so he went in all the directions, with no plot tying them together. The characters all went around being emotional and profound and serving as mouthpieces for Sáenz's various soapboxes, and nothing ever redeemed the book for me.
Saga, Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: This was slightly better than Volume 4 but had the same feel of the characters being stuck in one place and not being their best badass selves. I liked the characters they met on Phang and wish we'd gotten a longer story arc with them.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper: This book, from the perspective of a nonverbal young girl with cerebral palsy, surprised me in the best way. Things that seem like simple solutions turn out not to be as straightforward as you might expect from a middle grade plot. It ends up being not a book about Melody successfully integrating into the rest of fifth grade but rather a story of Melody learning to accept herself as a full person.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Bear and the Nightingale, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and The Shell Seekers
Five years ago I was reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Good-Bye to All That, and Mountains Beyond Mountains
Ten years ago I was reading: The Phantom Tollbooth
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