Archive | September, 2020

Read a Banned Book: This One Summer

30 Sep

Summer is over but if you want to enjoy a graphic novel about a coming of age story then you should read This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. The story begins with two friends who meet each other every summer in a small beach town. The best friends Rose and Windy are like two inseparable sisters. They have many adventures down by the beach. They always look for distractions to ignore the drama that they both have in their everyday life. They learn that life is hard and full of many sorrows. The two girls learn that there is more to life than just boys and candy. They both begin to understand the meaning of becoming older and the value in real friendships. I highly recommend this graphic novel. I would rate it five out of five stars! 

Banned Books Week runs from September 27-October 3, 2020, this annual event celebrates the freedom to read. It draws attention to censorship by highlighting works that have been targets of removal in libraries and schools. You can read more about Banned Books Week from the American Library Association. Despite This One Summer winning several awards including The Caldecott Honor the year before, in 2016 the Office of Intellectual Freedom listed This One Summer as one of the top 10 Banned Books. It was “challenged because it includes LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes.” Celebrate your freedom to decide and read what you feel is appropriate for you and your family today!

Review Written by:
Michelle Valle
Circulation Assistant

Banned Book Week Information by:
Aimee Harris
Head of Information and Digital Services

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Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Sorry Not Sorry by Naya Rivera

23 Sep

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I would like to introduce Puerto Rican American actress Naya Rivera. Naya Rivera has had a career as an actress since she was a toddler. She started as a catalog model and grew into parts in popular 90’s TV shows such as The Royal Family, Family Matters, and even The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! In her early 20’s starring as the sassy Latina cheerleader on the TV series Glee, she got her big break. Fans got to know and love her as Santana Lopez because just as her character said ”You guys love me. I keep it real and I’m hilarious.”

Behind the scenes, she was similar to her character Santana in that she was confident, funny, and vibrant. In her book, Sorry Not Sorry, the reader gets to know the true Naya Rivera. She apologetically shows the reader the lessons she learned and the things she didn’t regret in her short life, like being comfortable in her skin as a mixed-raced actress in a world that did not embrace that all the time. She reflects on her life choices and experiences with a sort of funny frankness. She cracks some jokes here and there like her not being sorry for getting plastic surgery at 18 while balancing the seriousness of other situations such as mourning the loss of a close friend and coworker, Cory Monteith.

But the fact that she passed away this year does make reading the book bittersweet because the book was published before she was 30, but she only got to live until 33 saving her son from the fate that took her life. I can guarantee that you will laugh and you will cry, and you will not be sorry for getting to know the late Naya Rivera.

Written by:
Elbie Love
YA Library Associate

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