Tabla de contenidos para Booklist, Vol. 119, No. 21, 7/1/23 en Booklist

Philosophy & Psychology Sipping Dom Pérignon through a Straw: Reimaging Success as a Disabled Achiever. By Eddie Ndopu. Aug. 2023. 240p. Legacy Lit, $29 (9780306829062); e-book (9780306829086). 158.1. Ndopu, an award-winning humanitarian and social justice advocate, was the first disabled Black man accepted into the masters in public policy program at Oxford University, and yet he has faced assumptions from the nondisabled and incidents of stripping him of agency. Growing up in Namibia, the assertion that he wanted to go to school put him on, as he writes, an “unimaginable trajectory.” His mother fought to get him into a school that would accept him, and, as a teenager, he spoke numerous times in interviews to urge educators to provide schooling for children with disabilities. Written in a funny, accessible, and…

The best of the sports books reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months spotlight individuals who overcame profound adversity to excel as athletes and changemakers. Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA. By Theresa Runstedtler. 2023. Bold Type, $29 (9781645036951). Runstedtler portrays such key NBA players as Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Oscar Robertson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who, in the 1970s, laid the essential economic and political groundwork for today’s NBA. Black Mercuries: African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games. By David K. Wiggins and others. 2023. Rowman & Littlefield, $38 (9781538152836). This valuable reference work showcases iconic African American Olympians like Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Simone Biles as well as unheralded, barrier-breaking athletes. Four Wheels…

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki haven’t collaborated on book together since the beloved, Caldecott Honor–title This One Summer (2014), but their latest, Roaming (reviewed on p.40), is worth the wait. Centered on three friends—two old and one new (and maybe only arguably a friend)—on a trip to New York City on a break during their first year of college, the graphic novel touches on feelings around friendship, change, travel, and self-discovery with unsentimental wistfulness. I caught up with Jillian and Mariko to talk about their collaboration, the captivating art choices, and what makes pivotal moments of change such rich opportunities for stories. Hunter: Can you tell us a little about how you worked together on Roaming? Mariko: This was the first time we worked on the scripting process together. Comics creation…

Older Readers Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. By Dashka Slater. Aug. 2023. 496p. Farrar, $20.99 (9780374314347). Gr. 9–12. 371.829. In 2017, an Albany, California, high-school junior started a private Instagram account. He wanted content that would make his friends laugh, so he copied ideas from popular accounts and went with what he considered edgy humor, including graphic, misogynistic, and racist memes. Inexplicably, he included photos of people he knew—friends and classmates, including several Black girls. He didn’t give it all that much thought until his supposedly private account blew up, rocking his small community. This meticulous retelling from Slater, author of the best-selling, Stonewall-winning The 57 Bus (2017), documents the ensuing events: shock, outrage, accusations, protests, threats, firings,…

The histories of break dancing, women’s international basketball, and the Gay Games are just a few of the varied topics covered in these top 10 sports books for youth, reviewed in Booklist between September 1, 2022, and June 1, 2023. Barely Floating. By Lilliam Rivera. 2023. Penguin/Kokila, $17.99 (9780593323120). Gr. 5–8. After secretly joining a synchronized-swimming team, fat, self-confident 12-year-old Nat Santiago struggles with snowballing lies and strained relationships. Breaking to the Beat! By Linda J. Acevedo. Illus. by Frank Morrison. 2023. Lee & Low, $19.95 (9781643796390). K–Gr. 3. This joyous, visually enticing celebration of break dancing follows a fictional composite character through the social history of breaking as well as the Bronx. Control Freaks. By J. E. Thomas. 2023. Levine Querido, $18.99 (9781646143054). Gr. 4–6. In this warm and…

Adult All the Sinners Bleed. By S. A. Cosby. Read by Adam Lazarre-White. 2023. 13hr. Macmillan Audio, DD (9781250897626). There’s a place in Virginia that some say is cursed with death and destruction. Throughout the decades, Charon County has experienced death, tragedy, racial strife, and historical disillusionment. After the first Black sheriff, Titus Crowne, was elected, things looked brighter for the town. When the Sons of the Confederacy marched during the annual fall fest, coinciding with an active shooter at the high school and the resultant police shooting of a young Black man, the town was in an uproar. While investigating, Sheriff Crowne uncovers a sinister triad of torture, brutal murder, and humanity’s evil. As the sheriff and his deputies race to find the killer, more townsfolk are murdered and…

It may be the height of summer now, but it’s time to start thinking about the big books of the fall. Here you will find literary heavy hitters, a few celebrity memoirs, and a couple of nail-biting thrillers. Absolution. By Alice McDermott. Farrar, $28 (9780374610487). Nov. Two young American wives form a tentative alliance in Saigon in 1963 in the hotly anticipated new novel from beloved award-winner McDermott. Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post. By Martin Baron. Flatiron, $34.99 (9781250844200). Oct. Not long after Baron took charge of the Washington Post newsroom, Jeff Bezos bought the paper; a few years after that, Donald Trump was elected. Here, Baron reflects on that tumultuous (understatement!) time when good journalism was anathema to the demands of the new owner and…

Manga licensing is complicated and gets more complicated when considering the complex world of digital manga. Some manga from Japan is only available in English digitally through certain platforms, and there is no way, at least currently, for libraries to offer these titles to patrons. But that does not mean librarians should ignore these titles. First, licensing agreements can change, and titles may transition to physical releases, as has been the case for [Oshi no Ko], the source for a popular anime that started as a digital release from Manga Plus and is now published by Seven Seas Entertainment. Additionally, these titles can be popular, and readers may seek read-alikes. The following are some more popular digital manga platforms with English licensing, along with some titles that librarians may benefit…

General Fiction The Apology. By Jimin Han. Aug. 2023. 304p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316367080). In the opening pages of Han’s lively second novel, following A Small Revolution (2017), the 105-year-old Korean narrator Jeonga, traveling in America and in the midst of a family crisis brought about by years of secrets, is suddenly killed by a bus. That doesn’t stop her from telling her story, however. Ten days prior, Jeonga received a letter regarding a sick young American relative in need of money. Jeonga, her Birkin bag filled with family guilt, boards a plane with her housekeeper and her two sisters to mend past family wrongs. These include an illegitimate branch of the family about which only Jeonga knows and a fourth sister who decades ago followed love to North Korea…

Biography and memoir might dominate this list of 10 superb graphic novels, reviewed in Booklist between July 2022 and June 2023, but don’t miss the immersive, thought-provoking fiction here, too. All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End: The Cartoons of Charles Johnson. By Charles Johnson. Art by the author. 2022. New York Review, $34.95 (9781681376738). National Book Award–winning Johnson began his literary career as a cartoonist, and this landmark collection gathers decades of his sly, biting comics work, as relevant now as it was then. Einstein. By Jim Ottaviani. Art by Jerel Dye. 2022. First Second, $32.99 (9781626728769). Ottaviani reveals not only the life of a brilliant, ground-breaking scientist but the artistry and imagination behind his world-changing theories and understanding of physics, rendered thrillingly in Dye’s artwork. Funny Things: A…

Middle-grade graphic novels are a wildly varied corner of the market, as demonstrated by the 10 books on this list—all reviewed in Booklist between July 2022 and June 2023—which range from wild adventures and over-the-top sagas to quiet, largely internal friendship stories. Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan. By Jason Shiga. Art by the author. 2022. Abrams/Amulet, $14.99 (9781419757792). Gr. 4–7. Shiga’s inventive, game-like comic offers readers choices that lead them down several narrative paths, ultimately toward two morally and emotionally complicated “proper” endings that give the book surprising depth. Bea Wolf. By Zach Weinersmith. Art by Boulet. 2023. First Second, $19.99 (9781250776297). Gr. 4–7. Rowdy kids eating too much candy, stockpiling toys, and building an epic tree house raise the ire of a grouchy old neighbor. Sound like the makings of a…

Older Readers All the Yellow Suns. By Malavika Kannan. July 2023. 384p. Little, Brown, $18.99 (9780316447324). Gr. 9–12. At three years old, Maya emigrated from India with her mother, so all she knows is her neighborhood in Citrus Grove, Florida. Now a sophomore, Maya transforms from a quiet A-student focused on her art to a member of the Pugilists, a secret activist group. Leading the Pugilists is Juneau Zales, an outspoken, larger than-life senior. Juneau makes it her mission to break Maya out of her shell. Not only is Maya thrilled at Juneau’s attention, she starts to fall in love with her. When her fight against racism results in being outed, she runs away with Juneau. Later, realizing that running away was a poor choice, she returns to face her…

Conversations on Letting Go: Guidance, Meditations, and Exercises to Help You Live Authentically. By Najwa Zebian. Read by full cast. 2023. 5hr. Books on Tape, DD (9780593684191). Why do we decide to hold on to ideas, or people, when letting go of them might make perfect sense? Using a question/answer format, Conversations encourages listeners to value the ability to let go, thereby living more authentically and freely. Listeners will likely replay, press pause, and take notes as they listen to this audio-original and become enlightened by the conversation which is organized in themed chapters on infidelity, toxic relationships, injustices, and external and internal perceptions. Each begins with a member of the full cast presenting a curated question or circumstance. Zebian’s responses are soothing, her anecdotes consistent, and her sincere tone…