Book Review by YELL (Youth Engaged in Library Leadership) Intern

Title: Kanye West: God & Monster

Author: Mark Beaumont 

Book review written by Ka Chun C. 

Kanye West: God & Monster is a biography of the most influential Hip Pop artist Kanye West by Mark Beaumont. The book covers his childhood memories and highlights his struggle of becoming an artist and trying to get signed to a record company to pursue his dream of becoming a musician and a fashion icon. The book begins with an introduction to West's maternal grandfather. Kanye was raised on the South Side of Chicago by his single mother. At an early age, he showed tremendous passion for music production which led to him dropping out of college to pursue his music career in exploring mysterious music entertainment.

I really enjoyed this book from a fan's perspective because it divides the chapters by his iconic music albums and analyzes each one of them, so we get to know more about the details and inspirations behind the songs. I highly recommended other Kanye fans to read this book. Kanye is one of those artists who is ahead of his time... way ahead... the only difference is he actually knows it and is verbal about it (which may be why so many people are put off).

I think anyone who judges him on the surface needs to read this book and see the method behind the madness. It also reflects on his ambition and aspirations in terms of building his career and franchise. He expresses his humanity and continually pushes his boundaries through music. The way he expresses himself freely and never hides his personality - because it's not a shame to be yourself - is very admirable.

Ultimately, Kanye's music has had a huge impact on my life. Regardless of his negative impression in the media, he is a good human being with a gifted musical talent.   3/5 ⭐

Book Review by YELL (Youth Engaged in Library Leadership) Intern

Title: The Bridge Home

Author: Padma Venkatraman

Book review written by Anna L.

The Bridge Home is a touching and powerful story about two sisters. Viji and Rukku, who run away from their troubled home to survive on the streets of Chennai. Even though they face hunger, danger, and loss, the love between them is unshakable. Rukku, who has special needs, bring a sense of innocence and joy that makes the hard times a little softer. Along the way, they meet Arul and Muthu, two boys who become their new family, and together they build something beautiful out of almost nothing. The story doesn't shy away from difficult truths, but it's full of heart and quiet moments of hope. When Viji loses a vital person during the journey she is unmotivated to continue in her life as if she has no more purpose. Padma Venkatraman writes in a way that feels honest and real - you feel like you're right there with the characters. It's sad at times, but it's also full of courage and love.
The Bridge Home is a story that makes you see the world a little differently and feel deeply for kids whose voices often go unheard. I would recommend this book if you enjoy hearing about a personal escape. This book taught me many life lessons like resilience, compassion, and the strength to found family. The book reminds us that even in the darkest place having motivation and people surrounding you is the strength that can bring back your shine.  3.5/5 ⭐

Book Review by YELL (Youth Engaged in Library Leadership) Intern

Title: Artemis

Author: Andy Weir

Book review written by Victor G.

Artemis by Andy Weir is a futuristic science fiction novel about a young woman's struggle to get by as a citizen of the first city on the moon. Jasmine Bashara is a brilliant, witty, antiheroine whose only goal is to get rich, legally or not. As a porter and a petty criminal on the side, she smuggles illegal goods into the city, but money remains tight. So when she is offered the chance to become a millionaire (and potentially destroy the city's oxygen supply), she is unable to refuse the job. However, when things go wrong. Jazz finds herself in over her head with law enforcement, the Brazilian mafia, and a disappointed father all to answer to.

This book is a great read for science fiction nerds who like space technology and futuristic fantasies. The author shares a through provoking view of what a world with commercial space travel and cities on the moon could look like. I enjoyed the degree of realism that the in-depth, technical explanations of the technology added to the story. Excellent pacing and well written characters, along with Weir's use of unexpected twists, keeps readers invested in the story and guarantees that there is never a dull moment. Overall, Artemis is a thrilling book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good science fiction story to read.   3.5/5 ⭐

Book Review by YELL (Youth Engage in Library Leadership) Intern

Title: Once Upon a Broken Heart

Author: Stephanie Garber

Book review written by Stephanie G.

Caption: The book opens to Evangeline Fox stepping into a church, desperate to stop a wedding that's going to happen in just a few hours. The boy she loves, Luc, had suddenly announced his engagement to her stepsister. But convinced that Luc is under a curse, she strikes a deal with Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, Jacks demands three kisses, each to be given on his own terms. As Evangeline soon discovers, Jacks has a hidden agenda, and she's swept into a new world of royalty, curses, and exile while trying to find her happily ever after. This book is for the ones who love the song Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.  4/5 ⭐

Book Review by YELL (Youth Engaged in Library Leadership) Intern

Book review written by Alisha W.

Title: Summer's Edge

Author: Dana Mele

-----------------------------Spoiler warning!!!--------------------------

Summer's Edge is a story told through three points of view, Chelsea - the best friend who is literally haunted by the past, Kennedy - Chelsea's ex-girlfriend and the host of the summer lake house, and a third person who I won't spoil yet. In the beginning, five friends finally came together again a year after an accidental fire burned down the lake house and took Emily's life. Ryan, Chase, Kennedy, Chelsea, each of them had received an invitation to the precisely rebuilt house, though all of them deny having sent it. Mila - Chase's girlfriend, is tagging along again, just like that fateful summer of Emily's death.

However, as the weekend wore on, Chelsea begins to suspect whether the fire that killed Emily really was an accident, and if the one who started the fire was one of them. Having spent a year in a psychiatric ward after, there were many details regarding that night that she doesn't know, and it doesn't help that everybody seems to be hiding something from her. She would've never imagined her friends as killers, but Ryan was convincing. An accidental spark, the whole house up in flames. Nobody willing to save Emily trapped in the attic and nobody willing to admit to starting the fire. Ryan implores her to leave, but Chelsea finally steels herself, promising to find out the truth no matter the cost.

Each character is interrupted by snippets of text from an unnamed character, presumably Emily. However, it would seem that she holds a grudge against every single one of them. That they were all murderers. By the end of Chelsea's section, Ryan had "left," an unknown somebody had fell overboard but no one on the boat had seen. Mila had fallen into an open cellar and died, and a candle was starting to grow into a fire, everything happening exactly like the night Emily died.

The next character, we cut to Kennedy's perspective, two years earlier. It turns out that she can actually see ghosts, and have seen them since she was a child, although she had denied it when Chelsea had her visions. There was the backward girl, the blue lady, the crushed man, They were friendly enough, except for one, the dripping man. He had tried to kill her when she was a child, dragging her into the lake. Ever since then, she had tried to keep the spirits pleased.

By the end of her section, Ryan was pushed off of the boat into the lake by Kennedy after he had continually goaded her, talking crap about all her friends. When Chelsea saw from the dock that Ryan had fell and hadn't resurfaced, she jumped into action despite being terrified of the water. Kennedy followed suit, as did Chase, who was also on boat. Emily, who was angry at Kennedy for not being jerk to Mila, was in the attic and didn't witness the event. After a fruitless search, none of them had found Ryan. The hours came and went, and Emily knew that they were never going to find him again.

Now we come to the third section. Emily's perspective.

We learn from her that Chelsea had not spent a year in the psych ward. It was only a few weeks. And it was never Emily that died, but her brother, Ryan. After his death, Emily set out for revenge. She invited Chelsea, Chase, and Kennedy, but Mila came too, to her surprise. It was fine with her though. Mila was part of Ryan's death too. Emily ended up pushing Mila down the cellar, locking Kennedy in the attic and trapping Chase in the living room after drugging them. Then, she lit the house on fire, killing all of them before escaping. Emily had cursed all of them to relive their deaths, over and over again, but now that they had learned, the flames no longer burned. With nothing else to do, the friends decided to stay where they were rather than move to and disappear. Instead, they simply hung around the house, playing board games and living their best lives, watching their former selves fall in love make mistakes and live.

Emily sees all of that. And she hates it. Why should they be happy? After all, she knows that when death comes for her, there will be nothing left except eternal existence, knowing that her friend are happy without her. 

I enjoyed the book. It was a quick and tense read with multifaceted characters whom all have their own problems. None of them are good people, but there are reasons behind why they are the way they are. 3.7/5 ⭐

- thriller

- horror

- supernatural

Book Review by YELL (Youth Engaged in Library Leadership) Intern

Title: Wrong Place Wrong Time

Author: Gillian McAllister

Book Review Written by Alice W.

Wrong Place Wrong Time opens with Jen, an anxious mother, waiting for her son Todd to return home. She feels like something bad is going to happen, and it turns out that she's right when Todd stabs and kills a stranger for seemingly no reason. Todd refused to answer any of Jen's questions about his motives, and he allows himself to be taken into custody by the police. Jen's husband, Kelly, is furious abut there isn't anything he can do. The two return home, and Jen falls asleep, questioning if the murder was her fault, if she had gone wrong somewhere while raising Todd.

When Jen wakes up, she realized that she'd gone back to the previous day, before Todd ever killed anyone. The day after that, she goes back in time two days. Eventually, she goes back weeks, then months, and then even decades. The further back in time Jen goes, the more she learns about herself, the people around her, and the event that led to Todd becoming a murder. 

What I like about this book is the unique premise; the idea of going back in time to prevent a murder is something I've never seen before. There are also quite a few plot twists, thought they were mostly saved for near the end of the book. Unfortunately, I felt like for the majority of this book, things were happening way to slow, The book didn't capture my attention like I thought it would when I was reading the summary. I feel like the pace picked up more at the end of the book (maybe because of all the plot twists/reveals), and I really enjoyed the last two chapters. They wrapped up the book really neatly, in my opinion.

My Ratings: 3.2 ⭐ for the majority of the book, 4 ⭐ for the ending.

Book Review from Teen Book Swap

Book Title: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

Author: David Lubar

Book Review Written by: Kristopher H.

Book review: This story follows in the first-person view of a new highschooler, Scott Hudson. It goes through the awkwardness and the grasp for independence that every teen goes through. I think this book is very well written, especially the way the author slowly developed Scott's character throughout the story. Scott goes from being a people pleaser and being judgmental about who he's friends with to slowly accepting the fact that it's a blessing to have those friendships. Around the beginning of the book, Scott believes his middle school friend group would stay together and be pals forever. However, since everyone is changing at this age, it was natural that they all went their separate ways. Scott sees all his friends find their own paths while he's being left on the backburner.

The turning point in this story is when Scott's last friend, Kyle ends up leaving him for a new group of friends. Scott is at his lowest and starts trying out new activities and talking to new people whom he deemed to be weird before. One of them happens to be a girl named Lee. On the outside, Lee sticks out like a sore thumb compared to other girls. She has green hair and has sort of a punk rocker style with pins on her face and obnoxious saying on her shirt. Despite all of this, Scott and Lee form a bond over their love for reading cleverly written quotes and dialogue, Scott doesn't realize it until around the end,

but he really cares for Lee. Even though she might have some strange quirks, she's still his friend and that means something to him.

He also has a few other friends with weird quirks like "Mouth", whom people criticize and judge for talking too much and being annoying. In this case, Scott also never fully acknowledges and realizes that they're friends until the end of the story. Another prominent character throughout this story is Wesley, a guy who is known for being tough and unbearable but is really a genuine person on the inside. Scott synergizes with all these kids who are considered very different and have unique personality traits that are seen as weird by others.

I really like how this book is written showing the main character's insecurities and awkwardness. At times, Scott questions what is manly and a good look on him and asks people in his life for advice like his brother and his dad. He has interest in this girl and tries to slyly find ways to talk to her such as joining school newspaper team, joining student council, and even theater. 

Ironically, every time he joins one of those, she happened to not get in. This forces him to stay with his choice of joining even though he won't be able to sneak in interactions with her. He slowly but surely develops his connections and interests from there. He goes from being a shy and awkward teen following the norms of society and toxic masculinity to actually being comfortable in his own skin and being compassionate and caring towards the people he surrounds himself with. 

What's also unique about this story is that there isn't only one antagonist. Although one of them is Scott's bully, there is also other antagonist sources such as Scott himself. He fights against his internal thoughts and his own self-consciousness. If you want a main character who isn't annoying and is actually realistic and down to earth, this book is a good read. Overall, I would give this book a solid 4 stars out of 5.

Crazy New Year's Resolutions (English)

1. I will draw five pictures.

2. I plan to play fire works.

3. I want to learn swimming.

4. Bounce ball faster.

5. Eat a bucket of popcorn alone.

6. Drink a gallon of milk.

7. Tear a ream of paper.

8. Plan a party for the school.

9. Drink a bottle of ketchup.

10. Binge watch videos for 1 day.

11. I will be nicer.

12. I will be more social.

13. I will get more stylish.

14. I will get better grades.

15. Save up money. 

16. Spend more time with family.

17. Try to win something.

18. Get new shoes.

19. Get a lot of sleep.

20. Know new stuff.

21. New deck for my board.

22. To wake up more early.

23. To sleep more.

24. To eat healthy.

25. To stop procrastinating.

26. To exercise more.

27. Learn 50 new dad jokes.

28. Write a funny song.

29. Learn to bake.

30. Read 30 books.

31. Finish my perler beads.

32. Going the soft ball team.

33. Not play in Beacon.

34. Waking up early.

35. Sleeping earlier.

36. Buying less Cheez-Its.

37. Not being a Bullying.

38. Keep on getting A's and B's.

39. Finish my scratch project.

40. Build strong relationships. 

41. Earn straight A's in school and learn everyday.

42. Learn something every day (doesn't have to be academic).

43. Increase public speech skills.

44. Be more confident.

45. To work out more to be better at self-defense.

46. Get my art style for my career.

47. To learn French completely.

48. Start a small business.

49. Become the ultimate gardener.

50. Find new friends.  

51. Get money.

52. Read a little more.

53. Try my best.

54. Love myself.

55. Do hard math.

56. Get in shape.

57. Get better at V-ball.

58. Draw more detailed.

59. Get smarter.

60. Do more computer science. 

61. Do more math.

62. Do more social studies.

63. Do more homework.

Crazy New Year's Resolutions (Non-English)

1. 吃很多东西 

 2. 内卷

 3. 找一个适合我的游戏

 4. 敲木鱼一万下

 5. 给Zhiyin一个好吃的

 6. 读二十本书

 7. 给我弟一本书

1. aprender ingles

2. terminar la escuela 

3. tener amigos 

4. ser feliz

5. se un buen estudiante

6. tener buenas amigas 

Book Review from Free Teen Book Swap

Title: Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment 

Author: Lawrence Goldstone

Book review written by: Richard C.

School: Galileo High School

Grade: 12th Grade

Book Review: 

    In his nonfiction book, Days of Infamy, Goldstone, with an expertise in the American Constitution, shines light on the countless abuses and bigotry Asian Americans and Asian immigrants faced throughout American history. The lost stories of the Asian descent are excellently displayed through old documents and visuals. Goldstone presents the reader with the history of Asian immigrants integrating with American society while simultaneously dealing with oppression by White supremacists. As an Asian American myself, Goldstone opened my eyes to the racist American history that was vaguely covered in history class. Through historical events, he analyzes the flaws in the American justice system and the language the laws were written to discriminate against Asians.

    Throughout the book, he emphasizes how the false narrative of the Japanese trying to invade the United States fueled the hate and fear toward Asians. With the growth of Asian immigrants migrating to the United States, White supremacists campaigned for restrictions on immigration, citizenship, and land ownership. Starting with the cases which defined the prerequisite of naturalization and becoming a citizen, he thoroughly explains the ambiguous interpretation of the term "white", a foundation to dispel Asian immigrants away. He lays out the events such as the Gold Rush and the immigration to the U.S. in chronological order to illustrate the fuel that ultimately led to the internment of the Japanese Americans. Goldstone dives deep into the prominent Asians such as Min Yasui and Ah Yup who challenged the exclusion of citizenship and land ownership, a step towards progression in the country. Such significant figures were epitome of persistence by bringing the cases all the way to the Supreme Court.  Although the anti-Asian sentiment was blatantly present within the country and Supreme Court, Asians did not accept defeat. Asians subjected to discrimination and racism hired legal scholars to contest the laws that heavily opposed the assimilation of Japanese and Chinese Americans.

    Not only did Goldstone cover the White supremacists' hate towards those of Asian descent, but also the culture and influence Asians brought to the United States. Japanese art and design were flourishing in the country, with Americans being fascinated with the artifacts from Japan's past. Popularity of Japanese fashions, arts, and philosophy began to bloom and created an economic relation between the two countries. Despite all the bigotry and hate, Goldstone alludes to the positive impact Japanese Americans had on the United Sates's economy, ranging from agriculture labor to boosting the market. With the success of Japanese immigrants, Goldstone explores the fake news of Asians trying to "overpower the Whites" and to "take over" the United States. As a result, politicians like James D. Phelan pushed for discriminatory laws and exclusion of Asian immigrants. He explains how the language of the laws were softened to not only offend the Japanese, but also to indirectly affect their immigration status. The tension is at an all-time high, and Goldstone weaves together the existing hate towards the Asian descent with the mass relocation of the Japanese into concentration camps after the attack at Pearl Harbor. Even though the two events had no correlation, the United States government was quick to persecute the innocents solely based on their birthplace.

    The writing is a bit heavy for those in middle school but succinctly written with an in-depth analysis on the racism against Asian Americans. A reader might feel disconnected with the content of the book if history is not one of their favorite subjects. Days of Infamy traces back to the mid-1800s, and Goldstone repaints the historical events that led to the Japanese internment. It was fascinating to revisit the past of the United States, and everyone can benefit from this reading. Learning about these historical events is a way to avoid repeating the past and to question the current state of the society.

Photo: Japanese Americans at Manzanar and Tule Lake

Summary: People of all ages wait in a line in front of a building at midday. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on verso of print. 

Original neg. no.: LC-A35-6-M-22.

Gift: Ansel Adams; 1965-1968.

Forms part of: Manzanar War Relocation Center photographs.