Short and Simple Printz Reviews: The Poet X, Long Way Down, and Charles & Emma

This is a place for books that I didn't fully review.

Maybe I listed my likes and dislikes, had a little short paragraph, or a few sentences to convey my feelings on the book, but whatever the "review" is, all of them are short and simple. (hence the clever name)

Today I have some short reviews for Printz award winners (including honor books)! I have made it a goal of mine to read every Printz award winner. The main reason why I decided to do this is because the Printz award is for literary excellence in YA literature, which I am familiar with, but it also pushes me a little bit out of my comfort zone to books I would not normally pick up. 

So far I have read 41/94 books. These three books are some of the ones I've read so far this year.

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

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Review

When I first saw this book, it did not pique my interest. I'm not sure why, I think I was wary about reading a book in verse talking about poetry. I don't normally read poetry or books in verse. Then I started seeing raving reviews and it got multiple awards, including the Printz award (which I am currently making my way through). So, I decided to pick this book up and I am glad I did. 

This was such a beautiful book. Even in verse, I could clearly hear this story and even more so feel what Xiomara was thinking and feeling. It made me really understand what she as going through and the questions she was asking. Even more so it made me understand how suffocated she felt in her own home. This was such a powerful book and I found that I couldn't put it down. I will definitely read more from Elizabeth Acevedo in the future. I already have With the Fire on High on my to-read list. 

I hereby give this book

5 Stars

Meaning: A new favorite

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.
Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.   

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Review

So far this year I've rated two new-to-me books 5 stars and both have been in verse, which is surprising because I don't usually read books in verse, but this was such a fantastic book. I listened to it on audio as well which only made it feel so much more impactful. It is so easy to gloss over words when you're reading them at a fast speed, but having the story read to you the way the author intended it to be read (because the audio is narrated by the author himself) was especially impactful.

The book is about a young man, Will, whose brother has been shot. Will intends to take his brother's gun and shoot the person he believes killed his brother. The entirety of this book takes place within sixty seconds as Will rides an elevator down to the lobby of his building. The entire premise is a unique way to discuss such a hard topic and show the reader how much a person can go through in such a short length of time. 

This is a fairly quick read. The audiobook was only about an hour and a half and it included a short discussion with the author which also said a lot about why he wrote this book. I strongly recommend this book. This is a book that deserves the awards it has been given and it is certainly one that will stay in my memory for a while. This is the first book I have read by Jason Reynolds, but I will definitely pick up more books written by him in the future. 

I hereby give this book

5 Stars

Meaning: A new favorite

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.

Deborah Heiligman's new biography of Charles Darwin is a thought-provoking account of the man behind evolutionary theory: how his personal life affected his work and vice versa. The end result is an engaging exploration of history, science, and religion for young readers.

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Review

This book was really out of my comfort zone. I don't really read biographies, but I challenged myself to read all of the Printz award winners and this book came recommended by my YA lit teacher a while back. I had to change the way I typically read books because I found when reading this book that I need to take more breaks than when reading fiction. Even though I kind of slugged my way through this book, I ended up finding it interesting. The book focuses a lot more on the Darwins themselves rather than focusing on just Charles Darwin and his research. It was a more personal side to his story and it included the rest of his family in the story. While the book did discuss what he did in terms of science and research, it mainly discussed the normality to what he was doing and showed the reader how his research fit into his family life, rather than the other way around. Overall, it was an interesting read, although I can't say whether I enjoyed it.

I hereby give this book

??? 

Meaning: I'm not sure how to rate this one