A book review blog by Garrett Pruessner dedicated to literature for children and young adults. Created for coursework at Texas Woman's University - School of Library and Information Science
Bibliography: Heard, Georgia. My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness . Ill. by Isabel Roxas. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2021. ISBN: 978-1250244680 Summary: Using the conventions of poetry, Georgia Heard introduces readers to the basics of mindfulness practice in her beautifully rendered collection My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness . Heard makes the case for mindfulness in her introductory note to readers and in poems that compare the mind to a monkey swinging from branch to branch. The following five sections introduce readers to breathing techniques ( Breathe in Breath Out ), accessible concepts for self-awareness ( Mindful Me ), poems to sharpen the senses ( Mindful World ), tools for relaxation and focus ( Meditation ), and poems to turn compassion outward to other people and all the creatures of the world ( Kindfulness ). Isabel Roxas’s whimsical and soothing blue and black illustrations combine with Heard’s poetry to create an accessible, helpful, and fun us...
Bibliography: McCullough, Joy. Blood Water Paint . New York: Dutton Books, 2018. ISBN: 978-0735232112 Summary: Blood Water Paint , based on the true story of Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi, portrays the struggle of a brilliant young woman who must endure the misogyny of her times. After the death of her mother, she must either join a convent as a nun or stay with her father grinding pigment in his studio. Although she herself is responsible for his success, correcting and embellishing his masterpieces with her superior skill, her father claims credit and treats her not as an apprentice but as a mere servant and model. When a prominent artist visits her father’s studio and sexually assaults her, Artemisia must draw strength from the memory of her mother’s stories of Susanna and Judith, strong women from biblical tales who become the subjects of two of Gentileschi’s most famous works. When Artemisia accuses the artist of his crime, she must defend herself before a court o...
Bibliography: Zoboi, Ibi and Yusef Salaam. Punching the Air . Ill. by Omar T. Pasha. New York: Balzer+Bray, 2020. ISBN: 978-0062996480 Summary: Amal Shahid, a young, Black artist and poet at an arts high school, finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, irrevocably changing the trajectory of his life. A confrontation in a gentrifying neighborhood lands him in juvenile detention for a crime that he didn’t commit. After he faces trial where Ms. Rinaldi, his AP art teacher, serves as a poor character witness, he must survive the dehumanization of being processed and incarcerated. Amal survives on correspondence with Zenobia, a classmate who he never got the nerve to ask out, and they share letters and drawings though the mail. He cautiously forms an alliance with several other young men to watch each other’s backs, and they share a sense of brotherhood as they follow their program of classes and avoid trouble with a white supremacist guard. The collection of poems, divided into ...
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