Completely Full Bookshelf

I hope everyone is doing all right this week! I swear that some actual prose reviews are in the pipeline, but because I haven't gotten around to them yet, I have one more graphic novel review today for MMGM and #IMWAYR of  Class Act  by Jerry Craft. Please note that there are some spoilers  in the below review that I have tagged so you can avoid them if need be.           Class Act  is the sequel to the highly acclaimed graphic novel New Kid , which was the first graphic novel ever to win the Newbery Medal! And it deserved it too, as it managed to create a complex yet accessible examination of racism within the framework of a hilarious and energetic graphic novel. Class Act  follows in New Kid 's footsteps by continuing to examine Jordan, Drew, and Liam, with Drew acting as the protagonist (in theory, as you'll see), as they navigate life at Riverdale Academy Day School. As the school administration is executing numerous mediocre attempt...

On today's episode of "They Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...And Then It Got So Much Worse," Texas has basically been in an apocalypse since Monday, with a winter storm spiraling out of control into complete losses of electricity and even running water. I was looking at these horrifying pictures on BuzzFeed , and people's homes have literally fallen into the 40s INSIDE. Good thing I totally lost faith in 2021 being a better year, because it's not. At least Ted Cruz is having a blast in Cancún. I do want to mention a few good things in the world. First of all, I need to make everyone fully aware that Julie Murphy has THREE books coming out this year: Pumpkin  on May 25, If the Shoe Fits  on August 3, and Faith: Greater Heights  on November 2. So that's awesome! Also, the North Texas Teen Book Festival is holding a completely online and free book festival this year on March 5/6, and the list of panels  is truly star-studded with MG and YA authors: Katheri...

So here's a funny story. For my Four Weeks of Witches event, I planned to review a graphic novel I had on my shelf called The Witch Boy , written by Molly Knox Ostertag (I discovered this book because Ostertag is actually the wife of the multitalented author of The Fire Never Goes Out , ND Stevenson). So I grabbed The Witch Boy  and read it. And it was so good  that I wanted more. And there was more. Two sequels, to be exact, The Hidden Witch  and The Midwinter Witch . So I ordered them on Amazon. And I read both of them as well, all in the span of about a week. And they weren't just so good , they were even better  (a quality rarely found in sequels). And because I am but a humble servant of the book gods who bring us these gracious gifts, I determined that the best way to convey how absolutely amazing this series is would be to review the whole series in one mega-review, thus illustrating the fact that I literally read all three of these books in one week bec...

Before we get to today's post, I want to mention that, in case you didn't see my post on Friday, I have created a new rating system for my blog that I call Ratings for the Graphic Novel-Averse!  This rating system is designed to tell readers who don't usually like graphic novels how much they will enjoy the graphic novels I review. The higher the score, the less likely you are to be frustrated or weirded out by the book! (Note that the scores have nothing  to do with the actual quality of the book—that's what my regular rating system is for.) Click here to learn about what each rating means and to hear some tips on getting started with graphic novels if you've never made the jump before! Also, quick complaint session: I have been locked in a battle of wills with technology this morning. First, I finally managed to place an order on the CVS website, even though it kept randomly going out and saying "Access Denied" and not coming back for 10 minutes. Also, ...

Please note: as of August 13, 2021, I've updated the information from this post and made it into a new page on my blog! I'm leaving this one up for posterity's sake, but I recommend you don't bother reading what I've said below and, instead,  head over to the updated page here . Thanks! You've probably noticed that I review a lot of graphic novels . In all of my time reviewing them, I've noticed that there are quite a few readers out there who have read few, if any, graphic novels and aren't really keen on getting into the genre. And this post is not to pester any of those people—if you are confident that graphic novels really will not be your thing, then by all means, continue reading what you love! But as I've thought about this issue lately, I realized that a lot of readers may not actually be opposed to graphic novels—they may just worry about how to begin. And I get what they're thinking! I only started reading graphic novels a few years ago...