Book Beat Reviews

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

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.

Maverick Carter is seventeen years old and life ain’t perfect, but’s it’s not bad, either. He’s got a fly girlfriend and a cousin who loves him, and a set that’s always got his back.

Maverick Carter is seventeen years old and he thinks he’s got it under control. He brings in money the only way he knows how: drug dealing. It keeps the lights on and new kicks on his feet, and it’s not clean but it’s money. 

Maverick Carter is seventeen years old when he finds out he is a father.

Left with a three-month-old baby, Maverick’s gotta rethink his priorities. For the first time in his life, he has someone whose continued existence depends on him—more responsibility than he feels equipped to handle. But he has to, because there’s no other option. Maverick is surviving, and he’s gonna do that however he can.

Except it’s hard to sling dope, stay in school, and raise a baby. So when a neighbor offers Maverick the chance to go straight, he takes it. Maybe, in this world where everybody’s lost somebody and is just trying to make it from one day to the next, he can do more than simply survive.  With brilliant clarity and brutal, heartfelt honesty, Angie Thomas truly encompasses what life “in the concrete” is like, and finds each and every rose that grows from it. This prequel of The Hate U Give is not a backstory. It’s a life, a beautiful one, a tough one, and ultimately a life that’s worth living: a bud on the sidewalk, catching the rays of the sun.

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

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.

Skye Shin knows the standards. She knows the twisted idea of beauty in this society, the rules imposed upon her: fat girls shouldn’t dance. They shouldn’t wear shorts, stripes, or flashy clothes. They definitely should not enter K-Pop competitions.

But Skye doesn’t care, and so that’s exactly what she does.

Swept up in a whirlwind of performances, costumes, and publicity, Skye is trying to stay true to herself. But it’s not easy when the K-Pop industry, her competitors, even her mom are constantly trying to tell her that she’s not good enough. That she will never be good enough. That she could never deserve this, because she’s fat, and a fat pop-star, no matter how talented, is the last thing anyone would want to see.

But Skye is determined, and through self-hatred and doubt, she pushes back against the expectations of worthlessness, because she is set on being the world’s first plus-size K-Pop star, and she’s determined to love herself and never lose herself in the process. 

This book is reality TV. This book is romance, friendship. This book is entertainment industry and media and beauty standards. This book is singing and dancing and crying and shouting and voices lost and voices heard.

This book is breaking the mold. 

And you should read it, because Skye is awesome and Skye has a voice and Skye can dance and tell you about K-Pop, and about being a teenager, and about loving yourself: because, ultimately, isn’t that what life is about?

Find it in through Interlibrary Loan here.

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

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.

Ana Dakkar is finishing up her freshman year at Harding-Pencroft Academy, an elite marine school that produces the best naval officers, marine scientists, oceanographers, and undersea navigators in the world. And while it may sound hard, Ana can’t imagine life anywhere else. Her family has gone to HP for generations and, beyond that, Harding-Pencroft is her home. Ever since her parents died in an undersea accident, the school is all she and her brother, Dev, have left. 

As Ana gears up for her end-of-year trials at sea, that home is stolen in a world-shattering tragedy. Ana learns that there’s more to the school than just its prestigious exterior—behind the facade brews a centuries-old cold war with another marine school, the Land Institute, harbored around a family secret that HP has been guarding for generations… a secret that might just trace back to a certain Nemo Dakkar, and his lost marine tech that lies somewhere in the depths.

As tensions reach a boiling point, her class embarks on a race against the Land Institute to reach the tech before it falls into the wrong hands. Ana must step up and put her leadership skills to the test in this epic about teamwork, adventure, and the ownership of a legacy. 

Fast-paced, well-written, inclusive, and incredibly enjoyable, this book has it all: adventure, friendship, and brilliantly creative twists and turns. If you’re looking for quality fiction, Daughter of the Deep will leave you deeply satisfied right until the very end. 

Find it in print and ebook here.

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

My name is Zach. I am an eighth grader and live in Ketchum, ID. I enjoy playing board games, reading, mountain biking, Nordic and alpine skiing, playing with my family, snowmobiling, and being outside.

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs is a quick and easy read that is very believable.

Ben Ripley is a smart young boy. He has a gift for math and can do complex calculations in his head. Because of this, he is “accepted” into a spy school. He immediately realizes how hard it is to be a spy, let alone lie to his parents and his best friend. He meets friends like Erica Hale, a strong, confident and pretty girl who smells like gunpowder and flowers. Everything goes smoothly until…Ben dramatically discovers that he is part of an operation to find a ‘mole’ (or enemy double agent) working undercover at the school. And by ‘part of’, I mean to say he is the bait to draw dangerous people out of hiding.

Sounds scary? It is.

Things go from bad to worse as the book goes on, leading up to a crazy finale.

Overall, this book would normally be around a B+ for me, but it was so fast paced and fun, I forgot about all sorts of nitpicky details I usually don’t like. All I remember after reading it was that it was fun, captivating, and funny. Quirky characters following a standard plot (with some twists and turns) written in a great way. There are eight other books after this one, with more to come. I would say, if you need a book to read in the car, or when you are bored, you should check out Spy School. You won’t be disappointed.

Find it in print, ebook and eaudiobook here.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

My name is Zach. I am an eighth grader and live in Ketchum, ID. I enjoy playing board games, reading, mountain biking, Nordic and alpine skiing, playing with my family, snowmobiling, and being outside.

The Infinity Courts, by Akemi Dawn Bowman is a wonderfully captivating story that explores the complex dynamics of the main character.

Nami Miyamoto spends most of the book battling her struggle to do what is morally right over what needs to be done in order to survive. Nami starts out living a great life She is on her way to a high school party, when she dies. Immediately the author transports you (in an unbelievably cool way) into quite an enchanting version of the afterlife.
Unbeknownst to Nami, there is a war going on in this world. She is thrown into the mix, where she meets allies, friends, and foes. She tries to decide how far she is willing to go in this war, and where she draws the lines. She discovers how to live and thrive in the afterlife, and how to survive this brutal world.

The reveals and turns of this book were by far some of the best crafted, mind-boggling twists I’ve ever read. Immediately after finishing this book, I couldn’t wait for the second book to release (on April 19th) and continue this story. On a story level, the author does a great job of keeping the danger high, the interactions believable and cool, and the plot progressing at a nice pace. It is really hard to describe how this book made me feel, all I can say is that I was engrossed the whole way, and I loved it. I’d highly recommend this complex, action-packed story to any teen who likes to read.

Find it in print here.

Brave Enough by Jessie Diggins

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.

“I can do it myself,” said twelve-year-old Jessie Diggins, tromping through the Boundary wilderness, vehemently resolved to carry her own canoe. She was fiercely determined and had long since fallen in love with the wilderness. 

This was the same sentiment that pushed her across the brightly-lit, fan-clogged finish line in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, her left ski thrust in front of her, her arms thrown up in celebration as she crossed the finish line to win the first-ever US cross-country gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games. 

It’s this same drive, I can do it myself; this same independence that streaks through her everyday life, as a professional Nordic skier and beyond. 

How’d Jessie go from a scrappy twelve-year-old to a famous, professional athlete? That’s the story of Brave Enough: a Nordic skier’s autobiography. This is a bubbly story, one built of sweat and hard work, of triumph and hardship, of slippery skis and grueling races, peppered throughout with a healthy amount of glitter. And it is an honest story, these pages extending far past races and ribbons. Diggins openly shares her struggles with an eating disorder and her recovery, reaching out to spread hope to others with her shared experience. 

Ultimately, it is a strong story, and an independent one: of finding your own drive, your own, fierce voice, that one that tells you that you can do it. That you are brave enough. 

Find it in print here.