What’s Sally Reading?

YA Books you don’t want to miss in 2011!  A recent post on the YALSA-BK mail group led me to YouTube and two videos entitled “YA Books you don’t want to miss in 2011” (8:51 minutes) and “YA Books you don’t want to miss in 2011 part 2!” (4:33 minutes)  Take a look if you have the time and access, it really got me wanting to head to the library for the titles I haven’t seen yet. Both videos contain music with a series of book covers recommended by the poster.  Some I have seen and read, quite a few I have not yet seen (though some have not yet been published).  It’s great that so many titles are available, I better get to reading! I just finished reading The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine.  Dit (who turns 13 during the book) is disappointed that the new postmaster has a daughter instead of a son.  It is 1917 and Dit was looking forward to a summer of fishing and baseball with a new friend.  Emma is a girl, and she is black.  As the summer progresses, they begin a friendship, but there are those in town who think a white boy should not be friends and spend time with a black girl.  Civil rights have yet to arrive in the U.S. especially in the South.  Over the summer and into the school year, trouble is brewing.  A wonderful book about coming of age and finding the courage to do what is right, even if it is hard.   (The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers.  After review, the books are distributed free to Nebraska school and public libraries.)