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Pub Date: 02 Apr 2019
Read courtesy of netgalley.com

Mera: Tidebreaker is an origin story of Mera and Aquaman. It says so on the back cover. Otherwise, I never would have known these characters already existed. I'm not a comic book hero follower, so this was a total introduction to these characters for me.

As a graphic novel, it fell a little flat. As others have opined, the romance developed too quickly in story form; although, I could see the foreshadowing of Mera being unable to fulfill her plan and to end up loving rather than hating her father's foe. That's part of the story's flaws, too; it was really a quite predictable story. But there was confusion, too; without background knowledge of the characters, I had to read others' reviews of the graphic novel to know that Xebel was a penal colony.

I was enthralled by the drawing, however. It's difficult to give the ocean a personality, and illustrator Stephen Byrne's portrayal of water was fantastic. On the other hand, his portrayal of Mera was inconsistent.

Because of the terse treatment of the plot, I don't know whether or not this would best be recommend to fans of DC Comics or to people who are newbies of the DC Comics franchise. Both might be disappointed.

“It’s time to stop beating yourself up.”

When I speak to groups of students or educators, I make sure to touch on self-compassion as an important part of mindfulness practice.  Typically, I begin with the statement above, shortly followed by, “…it’s not working, nor is it doing what you think it is.”
 
I start my overview of self-compassion with this because the experience of mentally beating oneself up is rather universal in our culture.  Just about everyone does it, and I would guess that you do, too. (If you don’t, that is fantastic – keep at it!)

Negative self-talk and the inner critic are so pervasive because many people see it as useful.  Some people even resist being gentler with themselves because they think self-flagellation is how they “hold themselves accountable” or “stay in line” or “teach themselves a lesson” when they mess up.

What occurs, in truth, is that we activate our stress response - our heart rate rises, blood pressure goes up, and our cortisol (the stress hormone) levels increase.  This elevated state is not one where you can learn any sort of lesson.

Beating yourself up is a learned habit, and I would like to invite you to change this habit by doing the following: 

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22465597-vanishing-girls" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Vanishing Girls" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414618400m/22465597.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22465597-vanishing-girls">Vanishing Girls</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2936493.Lauren_Oliver">Lauren Oliver</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1169734088">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Once again, I could not put down Lauren Oliver's book.  Nick and Dara are sisters and have always been close. Even though Dara is one year younger, she has always hung out with Nick and their best friend/neighbor, Parker.  But Dara and Nick were always very different; Nick being more reserved compared to Dara's wild nonconforming ways. And their closeness really suffers when Dara and Parker become an item. And the car accident where Nick and Dara slam into a wall.  I loved how Oliver's chapters were told from Nick and Dara's POV and Before and After.  When a nine year old girl disappears and then Dara does too; Nick unearths evidence the disappearances may be linked.  With mind bending suspense, Oliver has written a challenging story about truth, jealousy, love, and sisters. And for a great interview from Lauren Oliver, read this from The Guardian - <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/may/07/lauren-oliver-i-lost-a-boy-i-loved-in-my-20s-and-it-changed-me?CMP=share_btn_tw" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-...</a>;
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/62411-bjneary">View all my reviews</a>

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20814989-half-wild" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Half Wild (The Half Bad Trilogy, #2)" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413889802m/20814989.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20814989-half-wild">Half Wild</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7314532.Sally_Green">Sally  Green</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1536328072">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I listened to this book as part of the 2016 Hub Challenge Top 10 Amazing Audiobooks. OMG, Carl Prekopp's narration of this amazing audiobook was killer. I could not stop listening to Nathan, half white witch & half black witch, as he grows older, receives his wishes from his father, feared black witch, Marcus, searches for his love, Annaliese, and revels in his tentative relationship with Gabriel (who is in love with Nathan). This is part 2 of the Half Bad series by Sally Green and it is just as riveting as the first book!!! With a cliffhanger for an ending, I can't wait for the 3rd book in this series.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/62411-bjneary">View all my reviews</a>

a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18722887-little-mercies" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Little Mercies" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399313845m/18722887.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18722887-little-mercies">Little Mercies</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2875124.Heather_Gudenkauf">Heather Gudenkauf</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1523517782">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Little Mercies was an amazing audiobbok; narrated by: Kate Ruddand Tanya Eby! I read Gudenkauf's thriller, The Weight of Silence and could not put it down! The same was true with this thriller that combined a committed but harried social worker, Ellen with a parallel plot of a 10 year old child, Jenny. I could not stop listening as Ellen and Jenny's lives converge and both are being torn apart by life, family, and the system. The ripped from the headlines topics of foster care, abusive parents, death of a child are chilling, demanding empathy from the reader and society. I especially loved the author's interview following the audiobook which asks us to acknowledge and value the little mercies in life. A taut, emotional, worthwhile read.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/62411-bjneary">View all my reviews</a>

Book review: All Our Broken Pieces by L. D. Crichton

Publishing date: May 7, 2019

Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I didn't think I'd enjoy a sappy love story, but that's OK, because this wasn't sappy. I really liked these believable characters. Kyler was very romantic, and Lennon made for a very good example of how to understand OCD in others.

The OCD portion of the story was handled very well, both normalizing and explaining how it's not normal, or rather when it's not normal... when it interferes or embarrasses or makes others uncomfortable. The facial disfigurement part of the story was not quite as revealing as far as creating empathy, but it did allow for some insight.

Even though most YA novels entail hyperbolic parents, and All Our Broken Pieces is no exception, the author did a good job of reining in the parental extremes and bringing them back down to sensible characters. Any characters are good who can admit when they are wrong, and these adult characters do just that. Graciously, too.

I'll probably shelve this acquisition for my high school library in our "death/drugs/disease" genre sticker category, but it could easily just be categorized as realistic fiction or romance. In any event, I'm looking forward to recommending this title to my students.

This week is teacher work week.

As I write this, I am now at home after an all-day, off site professional development training with all the certified staff at my school.  The details of the training itself aren’t particularly important.  What is important is how I felt by the end of the day: really, really tired.

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23437156-six-of-crows" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423913869m/23437156.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23437156-six-of-crows">Six of Crows</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4575289.Leigh_Bardugo">Leigh Bardugo</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1514001035">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I read this as part of The Hub Reading Challenge (Top 10 Best Fiction) and oh this this series one I am going to enjoy- I didn't even realize I was at the end of the book. Talk about a cliff hanger ending, I could not believe it yet I am now hanging by a thread imaging Leigh Bardugo's next book---hurry up. I loved everything about this book; the characters with bigger than life personalities- Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias were oh so perfect and oh so fallible (I fell in love with them all); the settings of Ketterdam and Ferjda (The Ice Court) were mesmerizing and the thrilling plot with Kaz's crew going after a bad guy who makes a drug that is addicting and dangerous ---while so many, many things could go wrong had my heart racing and turning pages furiously. This is definitely a favorite series for me and since I have never read Bardugo's Grisha books---I am definitely going to now! Addicting is all I can say about this fantastic book I am going to be thinking about for quite a while. I can't stop gushing; a must read!
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Book Review: The Similars by Rebecca Hanover

Publishing date: January 1, 2019

read courtesy of netgalley.com

I'm going to start at the end... there's a sequel in waiting. That gives you an idea about the ending: it's a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, I'll never find out how it all ends; I won't be purchasing the sequel for my high school library. I'm not sure how much my students recognize cliched writing, but since it interfered with my enjoyment of the book, I'm not going to expose them to the triteness.

As a mystery, Hanover did what she was supposed to do, provide clues or throw out distractions as to the "real" perpetrator. However, I found these clues too obvious -- they were spelled out instead of implied or alluded to -- which took some of the guesswork out of reading a mystery. Hanover also heavily depended on the readers' willingness to suspend disbelief that a 16-year-old girl would be able to save her best friend from the evil mad scientist when the friend'as own father couldn't or wouldn't -- in the guise of having to wait for his wife to die -- so it HAD to be the teenager to come to the rescue.

One of the Similars, who are all brilliant geniuses, couldn't estimate how large the place from which he came was, claiming that it was hard to "have a sense of scale" when you're inside the place. Really? That felt out of character. (If it sounds like a nitpick, it is; but it irked me to have such a blatant character misrepresentation.)

Basically, the story was a little too schizophrenic for me. the majority of the story was about cloning and clones, and then the last part suddenly became about virtual reality and two mad scientist brothers. Then at the end... I mean near the cliffhanger... a character who had been declared dead via suicide was found alive and returns to the boarding school. Clunk... the cliffhanger was only a 2-foot drop for me. In spite of those who knew cloning was involved, the rest of the world didn't (wouldn't the suicide have made the news?) How could a teenager reappear, and no one called the FBI?  No one did because then it wouldn't be a cliffhanger. But like I said, it wasn't a cliffhanger for me. I stepped back up the 2-foot drop and walked away. It was my suspension of disbelief that was the only thing left hanging.

⭐⭐☆☆☆

Word On The Street is a fantastic literacy festival that our team at Brainspace attends every year.

Since our inception back in June 2013, we've enjoyed meeting readers and seeing young faces light up when we demonstrate the augmented reality in our magazine. "Yes, thank you. It is a very smart magazine." "We do raise the bar on content for children. We think our audience is very capable and enjoys the opportunity to learn." Parents, teachers and librarians are always excited about what we're up to.

This year, a youngish man (early 30s) challenged us. In the nicest possible way. "So, why is this better than say going to the library?" I truly didn't know where to begin. In my mind, he was comparing apples and oranges. As my mind was recalculating the information to deliver an appropriate response, he asked again. "I mean, why wouldn't they just get all the information about something in a book?" Ah. Of course. This is the generation that has become accustomed to having a world of resources at their fingertips within seconds.

"You're right. A book is far more comprehensive than this is." I conceded. "However, our children don't necessarily want to know everything about every topic." I went on to explain that magazines serve a purpose. Consider it an appetizer to the main course. Magazines pique the palate and books nourish the need for more. Our articles provide a sample menu of subjects and delve into each area with just enough to tempt the palate to stimulate the craving for more. Does everyone enjoy math? I'd like to say yes but we know that some prefer music or history or something else. Does our article on robotics make anyone an expert after reading. Not a chance! But they may want to become experts. Bring on the books and the guidance to support the next engineer! 

At the risk of sounding like a child stomping her feet, magazines aren't and shouldn't be mere fluff for kids! They can be more than puzzles and games that serve as a distraction. A good magazine should tempt the mind, provoke thought and inspire greater learning.

Appetizers anyone?