The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James--"Sometimes I forget that I made it all up, The mermaid in the sea And me in the sand."

 Title: The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James

Author: Ashley Herring Blake


LGBTQ+ Representation: Main character wants to kiss girls, not boys


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Now that she's gotten a new heart, twelve-year-old Sunny's goals are 1) do everything she couldn't do before, 2) find a best friend, and 3) kiss a boy. Sunny's swimming again, and finds best-friend potential in cool, new girl Quinn, and maybe . . . Sunny would rather kiss Quinn than a boy! But how does Quinn feel? Plus, Sunny is still reeling from her former-best-friend's (FBF's) betrayal, and Sunny's estranged mother moves back into town, complicating everything.


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Blake writes in her afterward that she's not picking favorites, but "Sunny swept and stole my heart" (pg. 373); since I can pick favorites, Sunny is my favorite of Blake's main characters.

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky--"You're just so adorable when you're flustered!"

Title: The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky

Author: Mackenzi Lee [NOTE right after I posted this: I just read some tweets that report that this author has been making inappropriate posts on her Instagram account. Yuck. I'm disappointed because I love her books. I am currently doing research now to see what she said. 😔]

LGBTQ+ Representation: The two main characters are gay


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Monty tries to get Percy alone so they can have sex for the first time. That's it. That's the plot. 😁


What I think (in 250 words or fewer): I somehow missed this when it came out as an e-book, but when it showed up in my bookstore as this cute little volume, I snatched it up right away.

Blog Pages Updates

Happy Saturday! 

(It's Saturday, right? I'm not sure anymore.)

Here are the recent updates to the Pages section of this blog.


I added a series of pages with resources about Neutrality in Libraries.

Click here to go to Neutrality in Libraries. 

I added results to a survey about Community Resources to NC Resources.

Click here to go to NC Resources.

I added some new reviews to and "coming soons!" to Rainbow List 2020:

Click here to go to Rainbow book list 2020.

I added Anger is a Gift Discussion Plan and What Would Librarians Do? to Videos.

Click here to go to Videos.

Thank you for reading! 

Man Up--"It was like the secret was slowly eating at me but I didn’t even know it"

Title: Man Up (to be released April 22!)

Author: Kim Oclon


LGBTQ+ Representation: Both point-of-view characters are gay


Content Warning: Homophobic bullying


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  David never thought his sexuality would get in the way of playing on the high school varsity baseball team and earning a college scholarship. But when his coach suspects David is gay and confronts him, and the team bully begins targeting David and his boyfriend, Tyler, and David's best friend reacts by becoming angry at David, David experiences homophobia in sports and school like he never has before. Will he be able to man up?


What I think (some spoilers ahead. Not everything spoilered, though): My jaw about hit the floor when, towards the very beginning of the story, David's coach brings him into the office, alone, and asks him if he's "a homosexual" and tells him parents have been calling who "don't want their play ball with a queer" (pg. 22).

Anger is a Gift--"You gotta grasp on to it, hold it tight and use it as ammunition. You use that anger to get things done instead of just stewing in it."

Title: Anger is a Gift

Author: Mark Oshiro


LGBTQ+ Representation: Gay, lesbian, biromantic/bisexual, LGBTQ+ adults, transgender, asexual, nonbinary


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Moss is a sixteen-year-old African-American boy with a great group of friends and a new love interest (cute Javier!). But Moss wishes he could be someone else--someone who doesn't suffer from panic attacks as a result of witnessing the police kill his innocent father. When the school administration begins an "enhanced security program" at the financially-stressed high school, Moss and the community, tired of being treated like criminals, stand up for themselves via organized protests.


What I think: This story is amazing, and I couldn't put it down--except, of course, when I HAD to put it down due to my anger and frustration--

In which I tweet my displeasure at a major event in the story, claiming "never to speak to author again" while already picking up the book to finish reading it.