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Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

Language is a very powerful tool. 

Call Us What We Carry shows that and more: that language is, yes, a powerful tool, but it is so much beyond that. Language is a radiant sun of the smile of a loved one, long missed and newly seen. Language is a shared word, a relationship, a connection. Language is the embrace we’ve dreamt of but lately have never felt. Language is a bridge that spans a vast and turbulent sea. 

Storytelling is comprised of the power of language, but its touch reaches deeper. If language is a bridge, storytelling is the person who crosses it. Storytelling, like language, is human. Storytelling, as Amanda Gorman tells it, “is the way unarticulated memory becomes art, becomes artifact, becomes fact, becomes felt again, becomes free.” 

This book of poems is pure, poignant power. It is cultivated, collective compassion. It hears. It sees. It speaks. It is the unparalleled beauty of language at its peak, at its rise, at its beating heart. It is empathy for the world we have created, the world we experience, and the world we live in. It must be read softly and deeply, and over again. It must be cherished. It must be cared for. It must be heard. In the climate of COVID, things can be scary, but this book tells us that “to care is how we vow/that we are here/that we are./It is how we break/free.” 

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of Elie’s life between 1944 and 1945. It is about his experience being a Jew during World War II.

At the beginning of the book Elie lives in the town of Sighet, Hungary. When the Nazis occupy Hungary the Jews in Elie’s town are forced into small ghettos. Soon the Jews are herded into cattle cars and their journey is full of horrors. Then they arrive at Birkenau, a sister camp to Auschwitz. When they arrive Elie and his father are separated from the rest of their family and unbeknownst to them, see them for the last time. They pass the evaluation and on their way to the prisoner’s barracks see the furnaces where Nazis are burning babies. Eventually they arrive in Buna and are put to work in an electrical warehouse. During this time they are barely being fed and are on the borderline of starvation. The Russians start to get close and the camp is evacuated. The prisoners are forced to run over 50 miles to a concentration camp called Gleiwitz, and many die from exhaustion and exposure to the cold. After a deadly journey on cattle cars, they arrive in Buchenwald and Elie’s father dies of dysentery. On April 11, 1945 the camp is liberated.

I would definitely recommend this book for those who don’t mind serious subjects. It is heartbreaking and eye opening. Some of the main themes of this book were father-son relationships, loss of faith, and man’s inhumanity to man. I will remember this book for the rest of my life. 

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Inkling is an amazing story about hope in the time of sadness, and how you can find your way back to joy.

Ethan’s dad is an artist and has produced many world renowned comic books. His sister Sarah is sweet and won’t stop talking in the third person. But Ethan doesn’t know what he is. He is devastated about his mom’s death, and he is worried about his family.  He is mad at his dad for not caring anymore. Ethan has a drawing assignment at school and it is stressing him out! Everyone assumes he can draw, because his dad can, but in reality he can’t. It makes him question his self worth.

But, that night Inkling is born, maybe out of need or just because. Inkling is a blob of ink, born from Ethan’s dad’s sketchbook in the dead of night. Ethan meets Inkling the next day and they are fast friends. Inkling agrees to help Ethan with his school project but is soon found by Ethan’s dad. Ethan’s dad wants to use Inkling to draw for him and keep him locked up. Ethan finally wears him down and makes sure Inkling has the freedom he needs. When Inkling is stolen by a greedy girl in Ethan’s class, his family starts to fall apart and a monster is made. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone. This book was really fun and fast paced and I enjoyed how it touched on more serious topics while still staying lighthearted and funny.

Find it in through Interlibrary loan here.

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Mason Buttle, the main character of the Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, is a big sweaty boy. He doesn’t seem intelligent but he hides many secrets. His life is full of mystery. His best friend, Benny, showed up dead in the Buttle family orchard just a year before the story takes place. Mason is made fun of at school and receives many taunts because of his near illiteracy. The only safe place Mason has is the guidance counselor’s office, the SWOOF. There he starts working on the dragon, a device which turns his words into writing to explain his life story. This is valuable to the police officer that comes to his house and questions Mason weekly, still trying to discover what happened to Benny.

At the SWOOF Mason meets Calvin, an extremely small and tech savvy kid. Running from bullies, they quickly become friends and go on many adventures. They start to build a hideout just for them in an old root cellar on the Buttle property. They stop into the Buttle house or as Mason calls it the “crumble down” every day for banana shakes before heading out to work on their secret lair. Everything is starting to get better for Mason and he is finally starting to feel somewhat at peace. But when Calvin goes missing, Mason is dragged back down into the mystery and terror that he felt when Benny died.  I loved this book and would recommend it to someone who likes a warm, heartfelt mystery book.

Find it in print, ebook and eaudiobook here.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I am Essence. I am in 9th Grader. I enjoy reading historical fiction and fantasy..

Mare Barrow is growing up as a lower-class citizen in the Kingdom of Norta, segregated because of the color of her blood. The Red bloods are the workers of the kingdom while the Silver Bloods live in amazing bliss, all of them under the rule of the Silver-blood king Tiberias Calore the IV. Mare grows up in the slums of the kingdom; living off of her family’s rations and stealing whatever she can get her hands on. When her best friend loses his apprenticeship with a fisherman in town, he is going to be conscripted into the military. She goes on a mission to save both of them from what almost killed her father and had taken her brothers to fight in the century-long war against the just as powerful Lakelanders. She stumbles upon an offer that can potentially save her and her best friend’s lives. When attempting to scrounge up the payment for the life saving offer she is caught in the middle of a big rebellion put on by fellow Red-bloods against the Silver bloods in the kingdom. In Red Queen, you discover how Mare deals with betrayal, self-doubt, and self-preservation when reading the first in this six-book series. For those who love action and a little thriller, this book is perfect for you. It has plot twists you would never expect written beautifully by Victoria Aveyard. I loved this book, the layout was fantastic and the descriptions of the book made you really believe you were there and watching what was happening to the characters.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I am Essence. I am in 9th Grader. I enjoy reading historical fiction and fantasy.

Avery Grambs is living the life. Not.  Ever since her mom died she has been cared for by her half-sister Libby and Libby´s on-again-off-again boyfriend; Drake. Libby and Avery share the same dad who has been out of the picture for years, and so it is just them facing the world. Avery´s goals are to graduate and do something with her life to hopefully be able to stop living part-time with Libby and part-time in her beat-up old car. Suddenly her life changes when she gets notified that she has received almost the whole inheritance of the legendary self-made billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, whom she has never met, nor communicated with, ever. In shock, she is rushed into the life of the heir of the inheritance and faces the different personalities in Tobias Hawthorne´s family who barely got anything from his death compared to Avery. She must keep her head high and be careful about who she trusts with the extremely expectant kin of Tobias Hawthorne. 

Inheritance Games is an incomplete series of currently two books leaving you on your toes and guessing whodunnit in this mystery and fiction book. This book will get you hooked within the first pages and make you want to read the next book as soon as you finish.

Find it in print and ebook here.