I was saddened by the cancellation of our annual Texas Library Association conference this past spring, but it's hard to be sad about this result of the cancellation: random shipments of advance reader copies of books, gifts from publishers, landing on my doorstep. These showed up yesterday, from Chronicle Books/ Levine Querido imprint:
I was in the mood to read something hopeful, and The Blue Wings by Jef Aerts seemed like it might fit the bill (pun intended). Right away, I was introduced to the family at the heart of the story: narrator Josh and his older brother Jadran, their mom and her boyfriend Murad, who has just moved in with his daughter, Yasmin. Without being told the diagnostic terms, we learn that Jadran, affectionately called Giant, has intellectual differences that cause impulsive and persevering behavior. Jadran also has a giant caring heart, and when the family comes across a wounded crane, he insists on bringing it home and teaching it to fly once more.
The Blue Wings covers a lot of realistic fiction territory--blended families, teen angst, intense sibling love, neurodiversity, and the relationship between animals and humans. It's a tender story, recommended for fourth graders on up.
The nation lost a powerhouse of law contained within the diminutive body of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice, who passed away last Friday. We have a colorful biography of Ginsburg on our shelves in the AME Library--Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality, written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Stacy Innerst.
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