Completely Full Bookshelf

Happy Father's Day and Juneteenth to y'all! I feel like I've lived seventeen lifetimes this past week—not necessarily in a bad way, just in a "whoa" way. There was household chaos, professional development, extracurriculars, even writing if-then statements to use in a statistical analysis program for school. There was also a trip to the movies to see  Kiki's Delivery Service  (from Studio Ghibli), which is so completely beautiful  and tells a warm, gentle story of a girl with a zest for life and magical powers who faces the lonesome tests and challenges of independence. And amidst all of it, somehow I crammed in graphic novels more quickly than I've maybe ever done before. It was crazy , y'all—and I had so much fun! So let me bring these books to your attention forthwith! (Sidenote—non-graphic novel fans, I suggest you jump down to my review of Understanding Comics !) Middle Grade Borders Written by Thomas King (based on his short story) and illustrate...

Before I go any further, I do want to mention that I just saw the latest Pixar movie, Turning Red , which came out Friday on Disney+, and it was so good!  It's not quite as good as Encanto  (which is technically Disney, not Pixar), but it's still insightful, entertaining, and definitely a departure from some of Pixar's usual norms. (And it's only an hour and a half, so it's a quick watch!) For Domee Shi's first chance in the director's chair, it's very impressive. Now for the post! Precisely one month after the Cybils winners were announced, I'm returning with the second half of the books I read while I was a Cybils judge for the first time—we tackled Elementary Nonfiction two weeks ago, and now we're on to Middle Grade Nonfiction!  And not only do I have reviews for you all, but I also  have a giveaway of one of the finalists, The Genius Under the Table  by Eugene Yelchin!  Read on for everything! Reviews I'm going to paste some disclaimer...