The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

There is a magical box at my office. It’s called "the box at the end of the hall.” The box at the end of the hall is where all the books people want to get rid of end up. And it’s where I found this gem.

I get you Lucy Wu. I, too, have a long lost aunt that no one knew existed until we started filling out her immigration papers. I, too, struggled with understanding what exactly it meant to be Haitian-Canadian… -American-Quebecois-Floridian. Yep. I don’t play basketball like you but that fight your parents had with your brother Kenny about college? Yeah. I had that fight with my parents too.

All the characters, even the minor ones, are well-developed and multi-faceted. They push Lucy to evaluate her choices and be a better person. This middle-grade book was a super quick read and I recommend it to anyone (of any age) who is struggling with their heritage and identity.

Wendy Wan-Long Shang is Chinese, making this the first book that fits into my Heritage Reads challenge! Can you suggest any other East Asian writers whose work I should check out?

More Reading Challenges

Or “Lists of Great Books I Can Read In Order To Complete the Many Reading Challenges I Set for 2013”

Clutch Reading Challenge

This list would have been great last year when I was doing the POC Reading Challenge. I’m not going to try to read all 100 books but I there are many, many gems on this list and I think I’ll use it as a resource when I’m looking for Heritage reads. (I could, of course, just add all the books to my Goodreads to-read list but then it would NEVER END!) 

Here are the titles I’ve already read:

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery by bell hooks

One Hundred Plus YA Book Covers of Color

Unfortunately I don’t remember where I found this link but I’m glad I bookmarked it! Few of the books on my shelf are for YA and none of those are POC books. This (gorgeous) Pinterest board will help me add more children’s books to my Heritage Reads.

Diverse Covers Diverse Books

I love that this Pinterest board by Gabrielle Prendergast includes middle grade books!

My Top 12 Books of 2012

Some of these books have been featured on my previous best of lists but I have no qualms mentioning them again. That’s how much I loved them!

The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam

I think it’s the beautiful prose of this book that has stayed with me. I look forward to reading more of Lam’s work.

We Are in a Book by Mo Willems

I shouldn’t have to convince anyone of how awesome Mo Willems’s books are. A professor in my publishing program introduced me to Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus but Elephant and Piggie are still my favorite. 

 

Salsa Nocturna by Daniel José Older

That awesome moment when your friend’s book is actually fantastic and you don’t have to hurt his feelings with a lukewarm review! If you’re in the New York area, be sure to go to Daniel’s readings featuring music from his band, Ghost Star.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I’ve read this book 3 times now. I bawl every single time. And now it’s a New York Times bestseller!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cathrynne M. Valente

Love love love this book. Valente’s world reminds me of Wonderland and Oz without the scary elements. Though there are plenty of dangers in Fairyland, September is brave enough to face them. It is an incredibly rich middle-grade novel that I would definitely read with my (hypothetical) children. I want to read the sequel but my compulsions demand I wait for the paperback edition. 

I am Number Four series by Pittacus Lore

I love this series so hard, y’all. I burned through The Power of Six and The Rise of Nine in less than 48 hours. What blows me away is the lack of pretention in the characters. Although these teenagers are in larger than life situations, their personalities are completely relatable. Each character has his or her own voice. I don’t like all of them but I understand all their motivations.  Combine that with a high-stakes interplanetary war and you’ve got one hell of a series. I can’t wait for the next book. 

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

I had just finished This Dark Endeavour (which I found a bit overrated) when I picked up this book so I didn’t expect much. Boy, was I wrong. This book feels both contemporary and historical and is full of heart. I highly recommend it.

Persuasion by Arlene Dickinson

This will be a lifelong reference book for me. It is exactly the type of book you’d expect Arlene Dickinson to write. All her advice is based in honesty and integrity. I radically changed the way I prepare for interviews after reading this book and I immediately suggested it to a friend who was preparing advertising pitches. This may be a business book but it’s great for everyone. 

Pivot Point by Kasie West

I was surprised by how much I liked this book. The sci-fi-esque plot summary turned me off initially but I was drawn in by the very real situations. The characters’ enhanced mind powers enhanced rather than detracted from the emotion rollercoaster of the book. Look for this book in store February 2013!

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

I don’t like thrillers but this one really drew me in. It started as one woman’s struggle to discover her own past and turned into a gripping whodunit.

The Encyclopedia of Me by Karen Rivers

This book is so cute! I loved the encyclopedia format and Tink’s voice is precocious and hilarious. The book touches on serious topics with a simple honesty that readers will love.

Cold Magic by Kate Elliot

I read a description of this on Tumblr and immediately bought the ebook. I was blown away, y’all. I’ve always said that fantasy can and should include diverse characters but I’d never read any books that did. (Yes, I know. Octavia Butler’s books are on my to-read list.) The world-building deftly incorporates peoples from across Europe and Africa without making people of color seem like exotic tokens or magical negroes.  

Olympic Readathon Results

While London was hosting the 30^th Olympiad, Random House of Canada hosted the Olympic Readathon! I participated because I’m a champion reader. Or I thought I was. Here are my numbers at the finish line.

1. Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul—complete: 115 pages
2. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce—complete: 296 pages
3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas—complete: 406 pages
4. Tar Baby by Toni Morrison—read 110 out of 306 pages
5. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente—read 131 out of 247 pages

Total: 1058 out of 1200 pages

 So close! I think I tripped over two major hurdles on my race for victory.

1.  I did not have designated reading time. I simply read when there was nothing else for me to do.  With an extra fifteen minutes of reading per day (instead of fooling around on Twitter and Tumblr), I’m sure I would have met my goal.
2. I didn’t skip over the duds as quickly as I should have. I have a really hard time letting go of books I don’t like. I keep waiting for them to get better. My earliest memory of this was when I forced myself to finish The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as a child. By the end I not only hated the book but also resented having wasted so much time on it! Lesson learned (I hope).

Overall this was a really fun challenge! Do you participate in Readathons? What are your keys to success?

Armchair BEA: Networking—Leonicka does Festival of Trees

Bonus post! Networking is fun for me (under the right circumstances), so I’m happy to share another fabulous industry experience I had last month. Because she is an amazing human being, children’s literary agent Ali McDonald took me to the Forest of Reading Festival of Trees in May.

Oh. Em. Gee. Thousands of kids running around along the harbour screaming out of excitement for books. It was a beautiful sight. 

It was a little rainy in the morning so Ali and I had to huddle under umbrellas and awnings to stay dry as kids introduced the authors of their favorite books and explained why they wanted that book to win. I could always tell which book would win by how ear-splitting the cheers were. “Is that book good?” I asked the little girl behind me. “Yeah! You should read it. Even if you’re a grown up.” A glowing endorsement if I ever heard one. 

Between award presentations, Ali and I had lunch. Strengthening old relationships is as critical as forming new ones, y’all. I don’t even remember what we talked about but after several of these one-on-one chats, I totally feel comfortable asking her for professional advice. It’s great to have a mentor. It’s better to have several.  

Other highlights of the day included a lovely talk with Kari-Lynn Winters, a prolific children’s book author; a visit with Angela Wood, one of the founding members of Kids Can Press; and the best party ever at Groundwood Books.

Overall  it not only a fantastic day for making contacts but an eye-opening one in terms of my career path. I had always considered children’s publishing  a completely different realm that I could never understand. I was wrong. It is a different world but I could see myself thriving in it! I am now 100% sure that my career will include children’s books one way or another. Not bad for one day of networking, am I right?

We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems

My favorite kinds of children’s books are those that incorporate the physical book into the storytelling. It’s no surprise then, that when I picked up We Are in a Book!  by Mo Willems I could not put it down.

 

My youngest brother is eleven and no one in my immediate circle has small children. But I bought it anyway. And why not? The text is hilarious and Gerald and Piggie are adorable. I read it twice in the bookstore and once on the subway ride to work. I collapsed into a fit of giggles every time.

This is a great read-aloud book and I recommend it to everyone. Even if you are not between ages 4 – 8. ;)