Book Beat Reviews

Trevor Noah: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.

Born a Crime is Trevor Noah’s autobiography adapted for young readers. Trevor is the most successful South African and African comedian. He was the host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central until back in September, when he announced his departure and went back to being a stand-up comic. 

When Trevor Noah was born in 1984, South Africa was still ruled under the Afrikaans and their racist apartheid laws. Trevor was born with a white father and a black mother. At the time this was illegal so when his mom gave birth she claimed on his birth certificate that he was born someplace else.  He rarely visited his father when he was young and as he got older, he saw less and less of him. When he was young, he remembered that when they saw his father, they tried to do it as secretly as possible. His mom was always poor, but she wanted to be an equal and pushed her way through the barriers that the Afrikaans had made for black people. She was a very religious mother and insisted on going to church. Throughout the book Trevor struggles to find a place where he belongs because he is neither white or black. The book takes you through Trevor’s exciting eventful life.

There are copies at the Community Library in both the young readers and the adult version. This book includes some violence, humor, pain, and can leave you with a heavy heart sometimes. It will give you a spectrum of emotions, so be ready. Out of all the books I have read in my life this is definitely one of my favorites and I’ve read a ton of books. Now it is time for you to get a move on and check this book out.                                                                                                                            

Find it in print, eBook, and CD here.

Every Day by David Levithan

Hi, my name is Rya. I am a sophomore and I enjoy reading, swimming and traveling.

What would it be like to be a different person every day? A human consciousness that calls themself “A”, who has been living the lives of different people since birth, knows. In order to keep this inexplicable secret, A keeps a low profile, doesn’t get anyone into trouble, and doesn’t get too attached to anyone. That is, until they live a day in the body of Justin, the boyfriend of a girl named Rhiannon. A is lovestruck, and wishes more than anything that they could stay in the same body in order to cultivate a proper relationship with Rhiannon. A explains their situation to her, and they begin to meet secretly. But as A’s life becomes more and more centered around Rhiannon, so do the lives of the people that A lives in, and Rhiannon doesn’t know how much longer she can be with a person who is someone different every day. 

Every Day by David Levithan is an intriguing book that makes the reader contemplate what it means to be a person. Do the people we’re around every day, our everyday experiences, our physical traits that are the same every day, make us a who we are? Or is a human consciousness all that is needed to be a person? This book’s plot can get a bit dry at times, but overall, the concept is interesting and thought-provoking. I would recommend Every Day to anyone looking for a unique read.

Find it print, ebook, eaudiobook, and DVD here.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Hi, my name is Rya. I am a sophomore and I enjoy reading, swimming and traveling.

Charlie Davis struggles with a traumatic past, mental health disorders, and self-harm. She is taken to a home for girls with similar problems, where she finds some comfort, but also feels trapped. When she is finally allowed to leave, Charlie is determined to leave her past behind her. She moves across the country, rents her own apartment, gets a job at a local coffee shop, and pursues her artistic passions. 

But a kit full of glass shards and bandages stays carefully tucked away, a reminder of Charlie’s past and a reminder that that past may not be over. Charlie also meets Riley West, a former rock star, and alcohol and drug addict. Although Charlie recognizes his bad influence on her efforts to restart her life, Charlie can’t help but fall in love, which means running down paths she hoped never to see again.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow is a profound novel about discovery and healing, centered around the idea that our past experiences and mistakes affect us deeply, but that we are strong enough to resist them defining us. This book is definitely heavy with intense topics and scenes. But, it is important that awareness is raised about distressing subjects through the writing of books like this one.

Overall, I found the language, plot, and characters in this book to be well-developed, and, although this is not my favorite book of all time, it is absolutely worth a read.

Find it print here.

The Twin by Natasha Preston

Hi, my name is Rya. I am a sophomore and I enjoy reading, swimming and traveling.

16-year-old identical twin sisters, Ivy and Iris, might just be the perfect duo- best friends, partners in crime, and always there for each other. But since their parents divorced, their contact became minimal and they grew apart.

When the twin’s mother dies unexpectedly from a tragic accident, Iris comes to live with Ivy and their father. Although shaken by this event, Ivy is ready to embrace living with her sister again, and hopes that they can forge a strong sibling relationship after the years that separated them.

But Iris is acting strange, and Ivy seems to be the only one to notice. Whenever the subject of their mother’s death arises, Iris becomes closed off. Iris begins to mess with Ivy, making Ivy out to be in the wrong. Then, Iris starts to mimic Ivy; cutting her hair to the same length, joining the same activities, and flirting with Ivy’s boyfriend. What started as the prospect of a sisterly relationship turns into downright hatred as Iris frames Ivy as being the insane, evil twin.

The Twin by Natasha Preston is, in my opinion, the definition of a page-turner. I was entirely involved in the story, so much so that it could be frustrating when the plot did not go the way I expected, which happened often. Although I personally did not love this book, I think that a fan of chilling psychological thrillers, or someone wanting to escape reality for a little while would enjoy it. 

Find it through Interlibrary loan here.

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

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.

Society, to some extent, is structured around an idea of sameness, this idea that while we are all unique in our own ways, we do have the same fundamental, “human” makeup. But this book proves that such a homogenous society is not created for everything.

In The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida, a thirteen-year-old author with autism, writes about the world from his perspective on behalf of an entire community of misunderstood people. Using only an alphabet grid and a sparkling, honest, and compassionate perspective, he responds to common questions “normal” people have for people with autism from: do you like programs on TV? to what do you think about running races? to what’s the reason you jump?  The answers inspire incredible empathy and understanding for the world Higashida lives in: trapped, unable to express himself easily, unable to talk, to remember. But at the same time, he writes of the beauty of the world through his eyes, the incredible, beautiful detail that “normal” people can’t see.

With an introduction by bestselling novelist David Mitchell and a finale of a poignant and moving short story by Higasha himself, this book is beautiful, impactful, and eye-opening. It helps us understand what people with autism feel, see, and think in a world not built for them, and most of all, it is a book that inspires kindness. And really, what more can you ask of literature?

Find it in print and eaubiobook here.

The Hard Road West: History and Geology Along the Gold Rush Trail by Keith Heyer Mendahl

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.

Do you know why rivers twist and turn the way they do? Do you know how continents form—how the building blocks of the earth fit together? Do you know that, fundamentally, we are all made of stardust?

Have you ever wondered about the Gold Rush—a mineral discovery that spawned a mass migration across some of most arid, inhospitable land in the nation? Have you wondered how these emigrants felt on this journey—a five-month odyssey that today would take you only about twenty-four hours to complete?

You may not be full of these questions, but The Hard Road West is full of answers. And you may be a little daunted by the pages full of diagrams and blocks of text. You may come to this book knowing nothing of emigrants, or the routes they took west; knowing nothing about rocks and how fascinating and important they are. But no matter, because this book will teach you that—and so much more.

You’ll learn that rivers love to move the same way you and I do—freely and uninhibited. You’ll learn that the ground you stand on, once upon a time, was seafloor halfway across the world—or that underneath your feet is a vast, sluggish chamber of putty-like rock. You’ll learn why our world looks the way it does and how that really impacts life around it. Most of all, you’ll learn how everything, really, is incredibly interconnected; a web of contingencies that connect all the way back to you and me.

Find it in print here.