Check out what books I've been reading this month 📚
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| Hello, everyone! Welcome to summer! Let's just say, my couch and I have become one, just like this moment from KPop Demon Hunters (it's silly and cute and fantastic, if you haven't watch it yet - it's on Netflix). |
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Suffice to say, I've had a LOT of time to catch up on books that I've been neglecting during the school year, so there are a LOT of reviews below. I changed the template to hopefully avoid things getting cut off, but if it still does, I'm sorry! I'll be doing a lot of traveling in July, including heading to San Diego Comic Con, so if you're also going and we happen to cross paths in the 1000s of people, say hi! |
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| Publishers and Imprints - Info for Librarians |
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| In this info posting I published this month, I started collecting information on the myriad of publishers and their imprints to help librarians navigate the ever changing landscape of companies bringing books to market through a variety of distribution models. Some publishers also prefer to localize and publish books for particular audiences, which could be helpful for collection development. |
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| On the worst day of Ganta’s life, a mysterious figure shrouded entirely in red cloth and diabolical power breaks into his junior high classroom and murders everyone but Ganta. As the sole survivor, Ganta is convicted and given a death sentence and sent to a prison called Deadman Wonderland where the prisoners perform in games and different shows for the entertainment of the population.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12 |
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A young boy travels the land and tries to head off horrors that are preying on people. As he finds them, he collects them into a special book designed to contain them. These horrors set curses on people, make them act in strange ways, and even endanger their lives at times.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-10 |
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Kaneki begins working at the coffee shop he once frequented and integrates into ghoul life while trying to hide his double life from his best friend, Hide. But, the feeding habits of ghouls in the neighborhood have attracted the attention of ghoul hunters who begin following and investigating customers of the coffee shop, many of whom are ghouls. Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12 |
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Katsuma-san finishes telling the history of Haretake and the evil lurking inside their foe who now has Tsuki hostage. Katsuma tells of Haretake’s goal to unseal the sessho-seki stones and unleash whatever evil is lurking below and the attempt Haretake will make to control the power inside. With this knowledge, Katsuma sets Konosuke, Aki, and his new apprentice Bokutake off and through a jar to go rescue Tsuki.
Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12 |
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| At a young age, Allen Walker was constricted into the fight against the Millennium Earl and his deadly cruel Akuma, machines built upon the grief and sin of humans longing for the souls of a dearly departed loved one.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12 |
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Mirai is unsatisfied with his life, as he is treated like a slave in his home and feels like he has no escape. He decides suicide is his only option. Upon leaping to his death, he is saved by an angel that gives him the choice to accept powers. In doing so, he is unwittingly thrust into a battle against 12 other humans who have also been chosen, and the prize at the end is ascension to become God of the world.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Adult |
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Chihiro begins a fierce battle with Sojo, and the two with their enchanted blades are very evenly matched. They take turns exchanging powerful magical attacks while Sojo goads Chihiro about his father's selfishness to keep the swords hidden for the time he had, even though he admires the craftsmanship it took to make such beautiful weapons.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12 |
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It's almost Abigail's birthday, and, because they're starting to publicly get along, Sabrian wants to throw her a large birthday celebration, at least as large as last year's 3-day marathon event. Abigail would love nothing more than a quiet celebration with just the three of them, but such an intimate affair would actually spark rumors again!
Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12 |
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| Gu Won is a young boy from a rich family, and he has been told his whole life that he must be the highest achieving student in order compete with his step sister to inherit his father’s successful hotel chain. The coldness with which he is raised causes him to hate everyone who artificially smiles at him and treats him with fake kindness.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12 |
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Trapped in a game within The Beach, Usagi races to find Arisu who has been tied up and left in a room while his time winds down towards certain death in Borderland. Usagi is desperate to avoid the militant faction who are trying to root out the witch by pulling innocent people to the beach and threatening to throw them into the bonfire.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Adult |
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Princess Mio is taken hostage by the king of Totodoto who wants to put her and many other unhumans up for auction in a corrupt, black market auction house. At first, Mio laments her situation and the unhuman guard who is assigned to her. When she realizes her guard is from her kingdom, she decides to take charge of the situation, and she creates a plan that will hopefully provide an opportunity for many of the unhumans to escape.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 6-10 |
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Rowan is a ranger-in-training assigned to a rather dull post for a final rotation, overlooking the meadows close to the village where the village’s reportedly lazy shepherd Leone wastes away the days playing the violin instead of tending to the sheep. But an error in judgment injures Rowan’s Pegasus, relegated them to light duty on the ground, and has them questioning their readiness to become a full Ranger.
Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-8 |
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| Lord Kudo and Miyo have a fateful meeting at the Usuba house, the home of Miyo’s maternal family, where her grandfather and cousin (of sorts) explain that Miyo does, in fact, have a gift, and this is what has been causing her to have nightmares and deteriorating health.
Sara's Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12 |
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Mayumi had been searching for a mysterious star she saw when she was four years old, and her obsession had fueled her dream to become an astronaut. But years of dead ends and nagging from her parents have caused her to all but give up her dream, something she’s decided to do on the day of her fourteenth birthday.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12 |
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On the other side of the castle, away from Silver Eve, a few witches plot in a jail cell. A wizened old man draws many glyphs on a young man and promises that he will turn into an ooze and be able to escape this cell. What he fails to tell him is that there is a horrifying leech guarding the outside of the castle walls, and the man fuses with the leech to create a large monster that invades the castle town during the festivities.
Sara’s Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12 |
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Kamiya's transfloration into a plant begins sooner than he anticipated and grants him the unique, unsettling ability to "hear" the thoughts of other transformed individuals. This overwhelming influx of voices forces him to confront his own mortality and the limited time he has left with his humanity.
Katie’s Rating: 10/10
Grade Suitability: 9-12 |
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| Three aspiring agents of Death come together (eventually) at school and learn to be better collectors of souls. For two characters, Maka and Black Star, they are on a mission to create an ultimate weapon for Death, and to do so, they need to collect 99 souls of humans and one witch, which they feed to their weapons.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12 |
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Suzume sets off on her own to find a way back into the Everafter. Her first stop is to talk with Souta’s grandfather, who tells her the only way in is how she entered as a child. This means she must revisit her destroyed childhood home in Northern Japan.
Katie’s Rating: 10/10
Grade Suitability: 9-12 |
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Aria is a young witch who lives all alone in a secluded forest, protected by a magical barrier put in place by her dearly departed grandmother. She has to keep to herself to keep the existence of magic and witches safe. One day, a talking white wolf wanders into her sphere, cold and alone, and the two become friends due to their want of companionship.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-10 |
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Two seemingly lost young Russians at the beginning of the Bolshevik era find themselves more or less indentured as servants at a large home, though one must utilize a wheelchair and the other has a serious medical condition. Both are each other’s lifeline, and they stay close to the home despite the hardships it brings them because they are looking for something very valuable from before the fall of Tsar Nicolas II.
Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Adult |
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| The Pet Shop continues their raid on Nest, and there are fights happening all over the campus. The students and professors are all trying to keep the predators away from their main target: Professor Ji. A pink praying mantis and an exploding ant take on Professor Jun, who is one of the last lines of defense before the predators get to Ji. Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12 |
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A deadly power lurks in Ganta, and a prisoner being held in solitary in G-Ward may have answers, including more information about the mysterious Red Man who actually murdered all of Ganta's classmates. But, G-Ward isn’t on any known maps, and nobody seems to know of its existence. Shiro and Ganta’s semi-prisoner friend help break a way into the secret ward where a prisoner known as “Crow” is locked up.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12 |
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The Knights continue to battle the Leech monster and try to get the wounded citizens to the doctors, who are secluded away from the festival and the city. With Coco being attended to by doctors, Qilfrey has to go after Cuestas alone. Beldarut watches over Coco while Qilfrey is away, and he shows Coco a handy spell where she can make her essence into a smoke creature to follow her master.
Sara’s Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12 |
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Four women close to thirty live together, and they're all in very different places in their lives.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12, Adult |
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Want me to review a book your students are asking for? Send me an email and I'll see if I can acquire it for reviewing. |
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