Welcome to Litsy!

Love it! @TieDyeDude
Thank you so much for my Día de los Muertos items, the books, and everything else.

#HHS24 #HauntedHollowSwap
@wanderinglynn

I have been reading the Newbery Award winners and this is my third book.
Sci-fi meets folklore, a wonderful book for discussions.

Too many stickers on the beautiful cover! 😓

Bought for my 9 yr old niece. Great MG audiobook!

100‘s of scientists & their families are on a spaceship for a 300 yr trip to a new planet. Haley‘s Comet is going to end Earth. While on the trip everyone but Petra gets their minds wiped by a Collective bent on fixing humanities mistakes.

Petra wanted to grow up to be a story teller like her Granny. Only she remembers earth. Will her stories save humanity? Heartfelt,sad & hopeful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Mexican folklore meets science fiction in this very young adult novel.
The cover pulled me in.

An absolutely heartbreaking and beautifully written story about a near future catastrophic event that sends humanity into space the find a new world. Our main character is a lover of stories her grandmother tells her and dreams to continue the story telling tradition. This poses some deep questions and ideas for a middle grade, or young YA sci-fi novel. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a great story. 5⭐️⬇️

4 ⭐️ s
In this dystopian future, Earth has been destroyed and Petra is the only human still alive who can remember the stories of the past; in her struggle to regain freedom amidst the subjugation of The Collective, she demonstrates the unique power of ancient stories to change lives, even if the meaning is obscured by time and cultural differences. This is the first book in YEARS to make me cry! SUCH an emotional story, holy cow 🥺

Books like this clever sci-fi thriller (middle-grade) remind me why I continue to read the Newbery winners. The audio was wonderful.
#Newbery

#BookReport
Managed to finish two books this week, one of which was my commute audiobook. Both were really good in their own ways.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal is to read a big chunk of Half Built Garden and then at least one chapter in Against the Tide of Years. Garden has higher priority because it's a library book .

I went into this blind so once I got over the shock of the transition from the folklore of the first chapter into the sci-fi second chapter this was really good. I can see why it‘s an award winner.

#BookReport
Managed to finish only one book this week but made some decent progress in both of my current reads as well.

#WeeklyForecast
Goal this week is to finish the tagged and take another big chunk out of the Nantucket book. Its text is tiny and the chapters are long so it's a little slow going.

Starting this today for a class I‘m taking because it‘s really slow at work. I didn‘t read the blurb beforehand so it‘s been a delightful surprise.

Book 38 and 39/100 for the year.

I‘ve always been drawn to this cover art, so when I was searching for an impulse read for #middlegrademarch I grabbed it. I drifted in and out of feeling completely engaged in this, but I think it could feel epic to someone the target age so it‘s going on my list to suggest to students. @megnews @sblbooks

Holiday decor all packed up in the bins, hubby on kid bedtime duty tonight so I get to curl up with the cat and book.

This book was the last roll for this months #roll100 hosted by @PuddleJumper
It had been on my shelf since last christmas. I am enjoying how the author is weaving together science fiction and traditional folklore in this tale.

In 2022 this book won the Newberry Medal. This book is very inter and its a story about a girl and her family leaving planet earth and continuing the human race on another comet.

Sprinkled with Mexican folklore, the science fiction tale tells the story of Petra Pena's journey through space and time is a stunning reminder of the power of stories and how those stories shape both our past and future.
Awards won: Newbury Award
Purpose of Award: To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children
Author/Illustrator: Donna Barba Higuera
Date of publication: 2021
Genre: Science Fiction

I never posted my collage I made for October all these months are flying by since I started work. I read 36 books that month and some great standouts were:

Miss Quinces
Swim Team
The Last Cuentista
White Smoke
Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Kelly V. told me to read this during Book Bites so I read it. ❤️

Dystopian middle grade Krypton last moments × Zenon, Girl of the Twenty-First Century meets WALL-E. Amazing themes showcasing the value of learning from history through storytelling rather than erasing it all as if it never existed.

Donna Barba Higuera deftly communicates the importance of stories and the art of storytelling in this absolutely beautifully written MG science fiction. (This cover is stunning!)

"A world without story is lost."
(I love books that are gorgeous without the jacket too!)

Perfect. I adore it when I come across references to other authors and/or books in books (especially ones I love!)

This was fabulous. The awards & praise was well placed. I loved the weaving of English & Spanish and clear ardor of folklore old & new. Another must for middle/high school English classes to pour over in my opinion.

Finished The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera which I borrowed from our local library. It certainly deserves the Newberry sticker that I will remind them to put on when I return it. The story was very different than I expected since I heard buzz about the book, but not about the story before I read it. I say it is a modern story about old things and their value. I enjoyed it very much. #89 #BookSpin #BFC22 #SuperSeptember #MGReads

My book haul from ALA so so many free books.

#OnThisDay in 1922 the first Newbery Medal was presented to Henrik Van Loon for his book The History of Mankind. Awarded annually for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children", it is yet another award named after an Englishman that only an American can win. In the 100 years of the award, only 6 authors have won the Medal more than once, and no one has won three. #HistoryGetsLIT

I have gotten to meet so many amazing authors at ALA. I was so excited to meet Donna Barba Higuera tonight! I was so excited when she won the Newbery this year! Such an amazing book!

A thirteen year old girl named Petra leaves a dying Earth with her family in the hopes of colonizing a new planet. But when Petra wakes from hyperspace, her family is missing and she is the only traveler who remembers Earth‘s past. Dystopian ✨ Sentimental ✨ Galactic

Petra dreams of being a storyteller like her grandma but a comet is about to destroy earth. her family gets chosen and she gets put to sleep for 300 years & wakes up in space an orphan & seems to be the only person to remember Earth & anything at all about the past. she tells other children her stories, cuentos, to try to rouse their memories and get them to escape with her. interweaving of Mexican folklore and a mythical stand of science fiction.

March and April reads read. Not pictured: the Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill.

Wow this was a good one! So glad it‘s my #doublespin this month! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A perfect birthday moment.

At times, I thought it was too similar to Beth Revis's Across the Universe. Eventually, it became its own and I began to appreciate it. And, knowing Beth's mother personally, I think Beth would appreciate the similarities.

Look what came in the mail today! I've been really looking forward to reading this after I learned it just won the Newbery Award! 💕📚💕 It sounds amazing and look how beautiful not only the dust jacket is, but the naked cover as well! 😍

💯 would recommend. Deserves all the awards. #MGFantasy dystopia awesomeness. Should have a sequel or partner or... just more.

Best way to spend April Fools‘ Day: Fooling myself that I‘ll read all these books this month! 😉 But it‘s spring break this week, so I should at least get off to a great start. 📚🥳💖

#BookSpinBINGO

A Latina girl with vision impairment, who dreams of being a storyteller, travels for 3 centuries to another planet, but when she is awakened from stasis, it appears she‘s the only one on the ship who remembers Earth. A dystopian middle grade Newbery winner that kept me from sleeping until it was finished! Audiobook is read by Frankie Corzo. #kidlit Grade 5-up

Len sprints up the ramp like a Jesus lizard across a pond.

P 257 This line, on the other hand, is such a lovely way of describing people, each unique in their own way. #buddyread

Page 247 This! This is the heart of this story! #buddyread @BucklingBookshelves

P 165 - I love the richness conveyed in the list of examples Petra gives of art and food and culture. Of course, war and famine are terrible, but making everyone lifeless, identical robots can‘t possibly be the way to address those problems. #buddyread

P 154 — This strikes me as very true! Of course, we‘d all prefer to be the latter, but it‘s hard to say how we‘d really react under duress. Makes me think of all the “quieter” heroes that don‘t always get the credit or accolades, but are courageous just doing what is needed in difficult circumstances, despite their fear. #buddyread

Page 186. I like this Rabbit motif that keeps showing up. It applies to our boring lives here on Earth, as well as a girl on a distant planet surrounded by the Collective. Life is a journey, and you only know what's out there if you try. #buddyread @BucklingBookshelves

P 76 Story generators? What a horrifying thought! #buddyread

P. 63 As I'm sure it's meant to, this applies to so much more than just rocks! #buddyread @BucklingBookshelves

Excited to crack open our first Newbery buddy read of 2022!

@BucklingBookshelves Got my library hold! Are you ready for a #buddyread sometime soon? 😊