Hello readers! Today’s newsletter is a special Sunday treat with a new recipe and a collection of some spectacular recent middle grade and young adult reads. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
I recently went to the kitchen to make a batch of my decades-long favorite granola and was devastated to find that the recipe was no longer hanging on the fridge where it had been for EVER. I searched and searched and it was just ….. gone. It’s a recipe I made a copy of from a magazine eons ago and of course I don’t have it memorized. It was always just there for me when I needed it, but alas, no more.
However, I do have Google, and it served me up exactly what I needed ~ a NEW favorite! My oldest and I adapted this recipe to fit our tastes and we have been in granola heaven since! I had never even considered adding olive oil to my granola and it truly leveled up from what I had always made ~ I love how rich it tastes and how it fills me up quickly when added to greek yogurt.
Paid subscribers ~ I made you a printable with my adaptation of the recipe! Don’t forget to grab it from the Downloads page 🖤
Middle Grade Reads
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick is a gorgeous blend of illustrations and narrative in Selznick’s signature super-chunky length, but with very accessible content. This dual-timeline story is a beautiful and enlightening tale of Deaf children fleeing tough situations and coming together in a surprising way. A 3rd grade teacher and his class convinced me to finally read this one and I’m so glad they did.
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson is so highly recommended by one of my library heroes (see below) that I made sure to finally read it. It is a delightful younger middle grade story featuring a 4th grader, but it is actually perfect for grades 1-4. It is often compared to Ramona Quimby, and since adore Ramona, I loved that comparison and definitely think it lived up to it. This is the first in the series and I am excited to read more!
Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart made me snort-laugh and sob simultaneously, and while my daughter was seriously worried about me during that episode, I was the best kind of okay. I can't even begin to express my love for this book and its predecessor The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. The grief is always so vibrantly THERE but the prose is also so hilarious and the adults are constantly dropping major life truth bombs and I just adore it all. You definitely need to read The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise before this one, and you'll be so grateful you entered Coyote's world.
Young Adult Reads
Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I absolutely LOVED this YA fake-dating story, and am so grateful my librarian friend Laura insisted I read it. It was so rich and layered and gave an amazing look at Indonesia and Bali. If you're an adult looking for a romance pairing, this alongside adult romance The Paradise Problem (May 2024) by Christina Lauren would be AMAZING.
Louder than Hunger by John Schu. I have a LOT to say about this one!
John Schu is one of my library heroes, and I had the distinct honor of getting to hear him speak multiple times at my state library conference just before the release of this book. It was transformative. He's simply the best storyteller, the most inspiring human, and one of the most open and kind people I have ever met. At said conference, Schu talked about this book, his first book for older students and his first novel in verse. He talked about his own lived experiences with anorexia, depression and OCD that are at the core of the story, his deep love for musical theater, and he talked about storytelling as power. And oh my lord does Schu's story has power.
Louder Than Hunger is in verse so it can let all the pain out onto the page in its free and wild form. It's brutal. It's raw. It's REAL. And it does what almost no other book about eating disorders has done ~ it portrays the evilness of anorexia and the damage and the pain and the consequences without teaching young readers how to be the best anorexic they can be. I mean, sure, bulimia books and exercise addiction books are also amazing at teaching youth how to be great at those diseases, but most anorexia books are trauma porn and an instruction manual. This book focuses more on the underlying pain and illness and the eventual visceral drive to LIVE. And that's what we want kids reading when reading about an eating disorder. How does a tortured soul go from starving oneself to almost death and then somehow, through years of treatment, turn it around and decide to claw oneself back to joy? THAT is the power of Schu's work in this book.
There is death and grief in these pages. Behavior of a teen in the throes of despair. Struggling parents. Despicable bullying. This isn't for the faint of heart, but it's a read that will build empathy and hopefully inspire. I am in awe of Schu for being able to write his pain and be open about it and break free from the secrecy that mental illnesses and eating disorders so often insist upon.
Also, please read this New York Times review of the book (gift link)!
I would love to hear if you have read any of these books or have any amazing middle grade or young adult recommendations for me ~ please do share!
If you liked this post and want to support my work, please consider sharing this edition of my newsletter with your reading friends, buy me a coffee, or upgrade your subscription to paid! Just sharing is a huge help, though ~ thank you ☺️
Thanks for reading,
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well!
Love your review of LOUDER THAN HUNGER! I never thought of many of the other eating disorder books as trauma porn or an instruction manual. I’m also a huge fan of Ryan Hart’s! Love all the content you’re putting out, Katy! 🤌🏽
I love your newsletter and the reading recommendations. Thanks so much for sharing your positive messages about food and eating. Sometimes I despair about the constant focus on weight and size. It must be so hard for younger women especially.