Welcome to Litsy!

DRAGONRIDER ELIZABETH MOTHERFORKING BENNET?!? 🤩🤩🤩

Heading out for our local #NoKingsDay protest and taking it to the streets. 💪🏼🇺🇸

A thrilling book of short stories that are weird, mysterious, and sometimes utterly shocking. I love the range of themes and genres that Bora Chung has touched. The stories are unpredictable and some outright gruesome! A wild ride that I devoured.

I really enjoyed Kwame Alexander‘s poetic storyline. As a kid, I loved the idea of casual superpowers like this and I think I would have really enjoyed reading this in middle school. The poetic structure was also alluring and playful, which may help students who dislike poetry to see it as something other than complicated. I don‘t remember seeing poetry that expressed a story like this until college, so it could be a cool read for younger kids.

This story collection, pub. by Pushkin, highlights the absurdity & black humor that Dostoevsky excelled at. I am halfway through the book & have loved both stories I've read. A later entry “The Crocodile“ I had previously read as a New Directions double feature along with Gogol's The Nose and found it to be just as memorable.

The “Foreword“ beautifully encapsulates the essence of this book. Like the author's experience with the kitty, George, we each carry stories. Memorable moments that invite reflection, laughter, tears, or quiet joy. These personal narratives shape who we are, page by page, into the book of our lives. It‘s a heartfelt and fitting introduction.

This novel would be a perfect pick for a middle school ELA class. The short stories all include well rounded characters, plots, and language. Further, with there being such a variety of backgrounds and themes in each story, it's likely that each student will find an excerpt that they find interesting. It would be fun to have students expand on these stories, or write short stories inspired by the characters. A great addition to the class library.

“Papi chose to be invisible today, so you won't ever have to be” pg. 89.

Reading this book has been a treat. Overall, the story that stood out to me most was “Sol Painting, Inc.“ The dynamic between the characters, particularly the siblings, read so natural and had quite a charm to it. Merci and Roli foil one another in a complimentary way; perfectly displaying the strengths and weaknesses of each character. This is a very well written story.