Sticky Notes: A Reader Response Blog

Howdy folks. Welcome back. Let's talk book five. Free Lunch by Rex Ogle is a young adult memoir published in 2019. Clocking in at 208 pages, this National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature tells the story of Ogle’s seventh-grade year navigating poverty, abuse, and the daily realities of being “the free lunch kid.” It’s categorized as YA nonfiction/memoir, but it reads with the pacing and emotional pull of a novel, which makes it incredibly accessible for adolescent readers. In addition to being a National Book Award Finalist, Free Lunch has earned multiple starred reviews and was widely recognized for its unflinching honesty about childhood poverty in America. It’s one of those books that quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) demands attention. A Brief, Spoiler-Free Summary At its core, Free Lunch follows Rex during his middle school years after his family falls into extreme poverty. His mom is struggling. His stepdad is abusive. Money is scarce, like, really sca...

  Okey dokey. Let's talk about The   Crossover (240 pages), award-winning novel-in-verse by Kwame Alexander. This young adult contemporary story centers on basketball, brotherhood, and family, but it does it all through poetry. That alone was enough to make me curious. I had never read a novel in verse before, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But from the opening pages, I was hooked. But, this book didn’t just resonate with me, it resonated with a lot of people. The   Crossover won the Newbery Medal (2015), was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and appeared on numerous American Library Association and best-of-the-year lists. It’s one of those rare books that is both critically acclaimed and wildly accessible to young readers. A Quick, Spoiler-Free Summary At its core, this is a story about twin brothers, Josh and Jordan Bell, who live and breathe basketball. Their dad is a former professional player, their world revolves around the court, and their bond i...

  Aurora Rising (496 pages) kind of checks all the boxes for me. It lives squarely in that Young Adult science fiction lane, but it brings big energy, sharp banter, high stakes, and a strong found-family core. Published in 2019, it was an instant New York Times Bestseller, pulled in multiple starred reviews, and was shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, which celebrate Australian speculative fiction. But honestly? The bigger signal for me was how often I’ve seen this book pop up in classrooms and library displays. It has that “modern YA staple” vibe, and that’s part of what made me want to finally read it. First, a Quick, Spoiler-Free Summary Set in the year 2380, the story opens with Tyler Jones, a top graduate of the Aurora Academy, pulling off a daring rescue mission that lands him the girl, literally. Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley (Auri) has been cryogenically frozen for two centuries and wakes up into a world she doesn’t recognize. Because Tyler misses his squad draft, he ends up wit...

Alrighty, time for blog 2: Nimona. If you’re not familiar, Nimona (272 pages) is a fantasy/sci-fi graphic novel by ND Stevenson, published in 2015. This delightful, slightly unhinged treat was a National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature, an Eisner Award winner, and a New York Times bestseller, and honestly, by the time I finished it, I was nodding along in full agreement with all of that hype. A Quick, Spoiler-Free Summary Nimona follows a shape-shifting teen who appoints herself the sidekick to supervillain Ballister Blackheart. From the opening pages, Stevenson throws us into a world that gleefully messes with our expectations of hero and villain. The so-called villains might not be the worst people in the room, and the so-called heroes might not be nearly as noble as their branding suggests. What unfolds is sharp, funny, and surprisingly sincere. The humor is fast, irreverent, and often laugh-out-loud, but beneath the jokes there’s a real interrogation of power, ins...

Howdy. Thanks for joining me for the first edition of Sticky Notes, a serial reader response blog for Young Adult Literature. Today's focus is Children of Blood & Bo ne (244 pages) by Tomi Adeyemi. This fantasy novel was a tour de force in 2018 when it was published. It was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, Hugo Award nominee (Best Novel), Nebula Award nominee, Andre Norton Award Finalist (SFWA), and finally labeled One of the Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time Magazine. Phew, had to catch my breath after that. Brief, No-Spoiler Summary Set in the richly imagined land of Orïsha,  Children of Blood & Bone  follows Zelie, a teenage girl living in a world where magic has been violently erased and where those connected to that magic are brutally oppressed. When an unexpected opportunity to restore magic appears, Zelie is pulled into a dangerous quest that puts her on a collision course with the monarchy, her own grief, and the limits of her power. The story blends epic f...