Like those of you who come to my blog looking for book recommendations, I often check out book vloggers/bloggers and 'what's new in children's lit' to see what I should be checking out next. That's how I heard about Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami. Firstly, I don't think I've ready any children's books from an Indian author before so I was interested to see if the styles would be at all similar and what kind of themes would be explored. Secondly, this book is about two of my favorite things: books and community activism. :-D Our main character, Yasmin, is a voracious reader and she gets all of her books from a lending library run by Book Uncle who sets up his 'shop' on the corner by her apartment building. There is no price for these books and if you want to keep it then that's perfectly okay. Yasmin and many members of her community come to see this little library as a constant in their lives but one day their world is upended because Book Uncle has been told that he must leave. What transpires next is nothing short of inspiring and that's just what I think is so phenomenal about this book. It teaches children that their actions matter and that activism can be accomplished by every member of the community. It's a great way to talk about 'doing your part' that doesn't make it overbearing or heavy-handed. It's also a great way to expose children to a different part of the world. 8/10

Note: This book will also make you extraordinarily hungry.

I loved the first book when I read it earlier this year, and The Problem With Being Slightly Heroic definitely lived up to my expectations. As with The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, the story is sweet, funny, heart-felt, and just a bit larger than life.

So, despite the fact that I still have no internet*, I decided to try to do the 48 Hour Reading Challenge (hosted at Mother Reader). Also despite the fact that I’m working 8 hours on Saturday. This is possibly ridiculous, but that’s okay. I have wanted to participate in some of the reading challenges that go on, but my work schedule makes this difficult. And given the focus on diverse books in this reading challenge, it was also something I felt strongly about wanting to support.

Here’s my (extremely ambitious) list:
The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami
Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson
Pointe by Brandy Colbert
Cold Steel by Kate Elliott
A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury
Flygirl by Sherri Smith
Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff
A Bride’s Story 2 by Kaoru Mori
She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

I am happy to note that most of these were already on my checked-out-to-read stacks! I started at 8 this morning (Friday) and have read for an hour and a half so far.

At this point, I have finished The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, which was absolutely charming, and a wonderful example of how diverse books can both be wonderfully specific and true (in this case to Indian culture) and touch on wider concerns, like friendship and family.

And now I’ve started Nalo Hopkinson’s Sister Mine, which recently won the Andre Norton award. I am loving Makeda and the cadences of her narration.

* By the end of next week this should be fixed. Yay!