New Books - Edition 1

Here's our first look at 5 new books the media center received this week!

You're Welcome Universe

This realistic fiction book is about Julia, a graffiti artist who is also deaf. When she is expelled from her school for the deaf and sent to mainstream school, Julia begins tagging every possible surface in order to try and find a place for herself. But then someone starts adding to her work, making it better but also showing Julia up at the same time. In the process, Julia get dragged into a graffiti war, risking expulsion and arrest, Julia must face off to her rival or lose her identity all together.

If you like books that show how a person grows to overcome obstacles and find out who they truly are, this book is for you!

The Power

I’m going to say this now, this book has a warning that goes along with it because of some of its content. It does have scenes of rape and attempted rape, so please do not read this book if you know that is something you do not want to read about.

A mix of fantasy and science fiction, this book is a page turner. I did not understand the layout of this book until I read the last few pages, but that did not stop me from loving it (if you need help getting the gist of the layout, come talk to me!). This book is about the moment in time when an electromagnet power is awoken in women. It started with girls and then spread to all the women – they now had the power to control electricity and shock people. This starts a shift of power within societies across the world. Women were now able to subdue and control men by using this power. This is the story of a world where women are in control and how they use that power. It is fascinating and terrifying.

Loving vs. Virginia

This is a very interesting book. It is historical fiction because the author takes some liberties with the material, but it is about a real event that happened. In the 1950s, interracial marriage was illegal in Caroline County, Virginia, but that didn’t stop Richard and Mildred, a white man and a black woman, from falling in love with each other. The Lovings would take their case for love all the way to the Supreme Court, which would eventually lead to interracial marriage being legal in all 50 states. Told through poems from both Mildred and Richard’s point of view, this is a wonderful story of how love and perseverance changed the law of the land.

For my history buffs out there, this is for you!

The Forgetting

This book reminded me of The Giver and "The Purge" movie when I read the summary, so if you like those two things, this books is for you!

It takes places in a city called Canaan where there is no memory of a time before the people of Canaan were walled off from the rest of the world. Every 12 years, there is a day called the Forgetting, where there are no consequences and no remorse, as people’s memories are lost and forgotten unless they are written down. The main character, Nadia, doesn’t need to write down her memories in a book because she is the only person in Canaan who doesn’t forget. This book is about Nadia using her ability to remember to push beyond the walls and keep her people safe.

Dreamland Burning

This book is a mix of historical fiction and mystery, so you get the best of both worlds in my opinion!

Told during two separate time periods, the story is about Rowan, a 17-year-old who finds a skeleton on her family’s land. Rowan must confront a 100-year-old mystery and in the process, confront the painful secrets that come with it. Will Tillman, a man living in the segregated south 100 years earlier, gets caught up in a racial firestorm during the Tulsa Riot of 1921. He must come to terms with his own inner demons as he tries to do what is right in a wrong society.

Whose remains are on Rowan's property? How is Will involved in the race riot and is he the body? Read the book to find out!

Our next Book Blog edition will be live on April 5th, so stayed tuned for some more highlights of our awesome new books!