Completely Full Bookshelf

I'm back!  Mostly because this post was almost completely finished last week, and I'm just finally getting it up now. Things are still mightily chaotic, but I'm making it work (I think), and hopefully I'll get a chance to finally read y'all's posts as well! Now for the actual post! I had a truly incredible opportunity this year: thanks to the urging of Helen at Helen's Book Blog , I applied and was accepted as a Round 2 Judge in the Cybils Awards for Elementary and Middle Grade Nonfiction! It was an amazing opportunity—I got to read absolutely amazing books (choosing was so hard!!) in a genre I don't read enough of, and then my fellow judges and I had an absolutely wonderful discussion that really made me think about the books in a new light. It's funny, because I had my own personal favorites, but when we had a discussion, I saw the merits in some books I had previously discounted, which was as powerful an experience as just enjoying the ones I

So, I had a post almost ready to go, but I am so frantic that I don't really have time to finish it, and I'm probably going to get behind anyway, so I'm just going to give myself a break and pause blogging for this week. (Which is technically the first time I've done so, barring my holiday break in 2021, since I joined #IMWAYR since the start of the pandemic—I don't love breaking my streak, but I also think there's perhaps something liberating about getting rid of that pressure!) Still, my plan is to be back next week with plenty of blogging for everyone to hopefully enjoy!

I must say, this semester of college is keeping me in a perpetual state of chaos. I haven't let that stop my blog before, and I won't let it do so now...but if I post comments on your blog that are completely incoherent, blame it on my exhaustion. It's very strange, because some seriously wonderful things are happening—it's just that so much  is happening that I don't have time for much else! Also, please visit this post from last week so you can see a very important article by Nikole Hannah-Jones that will change the way you think about racism (and as I've since learned, it's immensely controversial among certain individuals who I don't agree with, which means you really  need to read it!). Moving along, I'd like to discuss an absolutely gorgeous  MG novel by an author I think we all know and love (I've adored so many of her books , most recently The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane ). Today I am reviewing The Beatryce Prophecy  by Kate DiC

Update (4/2/2022): I typically participate in blogging groups that review kids’ books, but sometimes, I do end up reading adult books like this one. In the past, I have typically labeled those books as MG or YA when I review them, primarily because I still want my typically blogging audiences to see them! However, this has become confusing, so I have decided to re-label these books as adult books, while leaving the reviews in their original format. Thank you for your consideration! Before I dive in, I want to mention that I just read an article for a class that I think literally every human being (or at least every American) needs to read. If you've heard of The 1619 Project, the initiative led by Nikole Hannah-Jones at The New York Times  to reframe American history through a lens of slavery and the work of Black Americans to actually  live up to the ideals of freedom that our country is supposed to be based on (side note: this initiative spawned the gorgeous picture book Born on