Post-It Note Reviews: 12 Quick Reviews of New Books

In an ideal world, I’d be able to write long, thoughtful reviews of every book I read. That world would also come with more hours in each day—specifically, more hours afforded for reading and writing. As it is, that ideal world doesn’t exist. BUT! I can write quick reviews to help make sure these books get some extra attention. Here are a dozen recent reads that you don’t want to miss.

All descriptions from the publisher.

Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson, Ekua Holmes (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9780593461709 Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group Publication date: 02/13/2024, Ages 12-17)

A thoughtful celebration of Black girlhood by award-winning author and poet Renée Watson.

In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.

Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.

(POST-IT SAYS: A phenomenal collection of poems about love, identity, change, hair, family, aging, resilience, Blackness, and holding up the world. The beautiful, vibrant art is stunning.)

Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology edited by Amber McBride, Erica Martin, Taylor Byas (ISBN-13: 9780063225282 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Publication date: 01/30/2024, Ages 13-17)

Starring thirty-seven poets, with contributions from acclaimed authors, including Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, and Nikki Giovanni, this breathtaking Black YA poetry anthology edited by National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin celebrates Black poetry, folklore, and culture.

Come, claim your wings.

Lift your life above the earth,

return to the land of your father’s birth.

What exactly is it to be Black in America?

Well, for some, it’s learning how to morph the hatred placed by others into love for oneself; for others, it’s unearthing the strength it takes to continue to hold one’s swagger when multitudinous factors work to make Black lives crumble. For some, it’s gathering around the kitchen table as Grandma tells the story of Anansi the spider, while for others it’s grinning from ear to ear while eating auntie’s spectacular 7Up cake.

Black experiences and traditions are complex, striking, and vast—they stretch longer than the Nile and are four times as deep—and carry more than just unimaginable pain—there is also joy.

Featuring an all-star group of thirty-seven powerful poetic voices, including such luminaries as Kwame Alexander, James Baldwin, Ibi Zoboi, Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, this riveting anthology depicts the diversity of the Black experience by fostering a conversation about race, faith, heritage, and resilience between fresh poets and the literary ancestors that came before them.

Edited by Taylor Byas, Erica Martin, and Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner Amber McBride, Poemhood will simultaneously highlight the duality and nuance at the crux of so many Black experiences with poetry being the psalm constantly playing.

(POST-IT SAYS: A powerful celebration of the vastness of Black cultures, traditions, and experiences. Modern works are in conversation with poetic ancestors like Baldwin, Clifton, Lorde, and others. An essential purchase.)

49 Days by Agnes Lee (ISBN-13: 9781646143757 Publisher: Levine Querido Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 12-18)

Day 1

Gotta get up. Gotta keep moving. This map – it says I have to cross over here. Wait, what’s that…?

And so begins a graphic novel story unlike any other: 49 Days. In Buddhist tradition, a person must travel for forty-nine days after they die, before they can fully cross over. Here in this book, readers travel with one Korean American girl, Kit, on her journey, while also spending time with her family and friends left behind.

Agnes Lee has captivated readers across the world for years with her illustrations for the New York Times Metropolitan Diary. Her debut graphic novel is an unforgettable story of death, grief, love, and how we keep moving forward.

(POST-IT SAYS: Told with spare text and economical illustrations, this look at life after death is incredibly moving. While Kit navigates her liminal state, those left behind grieve, connect, remember, and persist. Just lovely.)

Ferris by Kate DiCamillo (ISBN-13: 9781536231052 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)

The beloved author of Because of Winn-Dixie has outdone herself with a hilarious and achingly real love story about a girl, a ghost, a grandmother, and growing up.

It’s the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris’s mother’s chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris’s grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell. But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans—wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?

As Charisse likes to say, “Every good story is a love story,” and Kate DiCamillo has written one for the ages: emotionally resonant and healing, showing the two-time Newbery Medalist at her most playful, universal, and profound.

(POST-IT SAYS: I laughed and cried at this book about music, family, a ghost, a chandelier, vocabulary words, and love–mighty and wide. I’m tempted to immediately reread it.)

Making Friends: Together Forever (Making Friends #4) by Kristen Gudsnuk (ISBN-13: 9781338630824 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)

Kristen Gudsnuk takes readers on a magical adventure about friendship in this fourth and final installment of her imaginative Making Friends series.

No magic. No sketchbook. No friends. Again?!

Dany’s magical sketchbook has steered most of her middle-school life so far — it even helped create her best friend, Madison. But now that the sketchbook is gone, and Madison with it, Dany’s back to being a loner. Then one day, Dany tunes in to the new hit TV show My Magical Best Friend, and it’s starring her magical best friend, Madison! The show is clearly based on Dany’s life, and she watches it regularly with a mix of horror and fascination. But lately there’s something else about the show that’s captured her attention: Madison seems to be dropping hints for Dany to come rescue her. With no magical sketchbook at her fingertips, can Dany find a way to save her best friend?

(POST-IT SAYS: Things get weirder than ever as we reach the end of Dany’s magical story. Middle school angst meets aliens meets television characters (or are they?) meets a magic sketchbook. Good for readers who like chaotic storylines.)

All is Nat Lost (Nat Enough #5) by Maria Scrivan (ISBN-13: 9781338890587 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)

A companion to the New York Times bestselling series that began with Nat Enough!

Nat’s class trip is a bigger adventure than she imagined!

Nat is on an overnight class trip to Philadelphia, which is her first time in a big city without her parents. And it’s a big deal because Nat’s mom and dad are finally giving her the independence she’s been longing for. But the trip is off to a bad start — with one disaster after another — and if things keep up, Nat’s on track to lose her newfound freedom for good!

Can she turn things around in time, or will her first chance with liberty be her last?

(POST-IT SAYS: Oh, Nat. She just wants a little more independence, but that leaves even more room for things to go wrong. An unexpected adventure on a school trip leads to some mistakes, but Nat works to get things back on track. Great addition to the series.)

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu (ISBN-13: 9780062275158 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Publication date: 01/16/2024, Ages 8-12)

From the award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy comes an unforgettable and deeply personal story of the ghosts that surround us—and the ones we carry inside.

The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn’t fit among them. For Violet Hart—whose family is about to move into the house on Katydid Street—very little felt like it fit anymore. Like their old home, suddenly too small since her mother remarried and the new baby arrived. Or Violet’s group of friends, which, since they started middle school, isn’t enough for Violet’s best friend, Paige. Everything seemed to be changing at once. But sometimes, Violet tells herself, change is okay.

That is, until Violet sees her new room. The attic bedroom in their new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. And then, after moving in, Violet falls ill—and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she’s really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the shadows moving in the corners, wrapping themselves around her at night. 

And soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all.

(POST-IT SAYS: What’s scarier: the thing that lives in the wallpaper or an invisible and undiagnosed chronic illness? A super readable story of friendship, change, family, and the frustrations of difficult to diagnose health issues. Loved it.)

Hotelitor: Luxury-Class Defense and Hospitality Unit by Josh Hicks (ISBN-13: 9798765623350 Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group Publication date: 05/07/2024, Ages 13+)

Take a trip aboard Hotelitor: the finest hospitality craft in its colony, equipped with jet feet, a hyperspace engine, and single, double, and adjoining rooms.

When a giant alien attacks the ship, Hotelitor’s surviving guests and staff find themselves stranded in deep space. There, 18-year-old intern Anna Greene must take charge. Alongside her fellow entry-level service workers, she’ll try to control the chaos while rival factions emerge, wealthy VIPs seize hotel resources, and the musician-in-residence develops a literal cult following. As Anna and her friends search for a way home, shocking discoveries about Hotelitor’s owners await them—if another giant alien doesn’t smash the crew first.

(POST-IT SAYS: Truly weird concept, truly hilarious and interesting story! I didn’t know I needed a mecha hotel story in my life. Tons of action, problem-solving, and hijinks. The bright, dynamic artwork brings the story to life. A great, fun read.)

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen (ISBN-13: 9781338795080 Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Iceberg, Jennifer A. Nielsen inspires readers with a brand-new thriller based on the remarkable true story of a young Polish girl who bravely fought, participating in the Warsaw city uprising, and took a stand in the name of freedom.

Twelve-year-old Lidia is outside her grandfather’s house when planes fly overhead, bearing the Nazi cross on each wing. Before the bombs hit the ground, Lidia realizes her life is about to change forever. Poland has fallen under German occupation, and her father makes the brave decision to join the Polish army to fight against the Nazis. Lidia wants to follow him into war, but she’s far too young, and she’s needed by her mother and brother.

After her family returns to Warsaw, where life has changed irrevocably, Lidia continues to play the piano, finding comfort in Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven. But she also wants to aid the Jewish people held captive in the Warsaw Ghetto. With the help of a friend, Lidia begins to smuggle wheat and food into the ghetto. Still, she feels like she could be doing so much more. She wants to fight. After her brother joins the resistance, Lidia wants only to follow in his footsteps. Soon, she begins to work as a courier, smuggling weapons and messages for the resistance throughout the city.

When the Warsaw city uprising begins—one year after the more well-known Warsaw Ghetto uprising by Polish Jews—with gunfire and bombs echoing throughout the streets, Lidia joins the Polish nationalists’ fight, too, and she and her peers fight with everything they’ve got. Life will continue to surprise Lidia, as she and the resistance fighters do their best to defeat the German soldiers. No matter the consequences, they’re willing to defend their freedom and their homes from the Nazi invaders—even with their lives.

Drawing on the extraordinary real-life story of Polish teenager Lidia Zakrzewski, bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen presents an inspiring and dramatic account of the Polish resistance fighters who struggled to force out their Nazi occupiers and reclaim their nation’s freedom from tyranny.

(POST-IT SAYS: Spanning 5 years, Nielsen explores one brave girl’s contributions to the Resistance in Warsaw. Full of danger and one heartbreaking loss after another, Lidia’s story shows the lengths ordinary people went to to defend their country.)

Walkin’ the Dog by Chris Lynch (ISBN-13: 9781481459204 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers Publication date: 03/12/2024, Ages 10-13)

“Lynch is back and better, smarter, and funnier than ever.” —Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award Winner

A boy learns how to be a friend from man’s best friend in this funny and moving middle grade novel about humans being able to change and dogs changing us from acclaimed author Chris Lynch.

In a family of strong personalities with very strong points of view, Louis is what his mother lovingly calls “the inactivist,” someone who’d rather kick back than stand out. He only hopes he can stay under the radar when he starts high school in the fall, his first experience with public school after years of homeschooling.

But when a favor for a neighbor and his stinky canine companion unexpectedly turns into a bustling dog-walking business, Louis finds himself meeting an unprecedented number of new friends—both human and canine. Agatha, a quippy and cagey girl his age always seems to be telling two truths and a lie. Cyrus, a few years his senior, promises he’s going to show Louis how to be a better person, whether Louis wants him to or not. And then there are the dogs: misbehaving border terriers, the four (possible stolen) sausage dogs, the rest of Louis’s charges, and a mysterious white beast who appears at a certain spot at the edge of the woods.

Dogs and human alike all seem to have something they want to teach Louis, including his menacing older brother who keeps turning up everywhere. But is Louis ready to learn the lesson he needs most: how to stop being a lone wolf and be part of a pack?

(POST-IT SAYS: The always fantastic Lynch shows how community and connection can happen if you’re willing to be open to it—and if you have some canine helpers. Mixing serious issues with plenty of humor, Lynch shows hope and love even when things are hard.)

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu (ISBN-13: 9781536229097 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 03/19/2024, Ages 10-14)

“Every so often a book comes along that is so brave and necessary, it extends a lifeline when it’s needed most. This is one of those books.” —Katherine Applegate, author of the Newbery Medal–winning, The One and Only Ivan

Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia—and self-expression as an act of survival—in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse.

But another voice inside me says,
We need help.
We’re going to die.

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears? A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this much-anticipated verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain, and embracing self-acceptance, support, and love.

(POST-IT SAYS: Wow. What a read. Jake’s struggle with anorexia is deeply moving. At times really painful to read, Jake’s story is one of love, connection, and recovery. Poignant, powerful, and important.)

Pieces of a Girl by Stephanie Kuehnert (ISBN-13: 9780525429753 Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group Publication date: 03/26/2024, Ages 14-17)

A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie’s life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.

(POST-IT SAYS: Well, this one hit really close to home. 90s zines, riot grrrl, terrible relationships, painful growth and change, mix tapes, teen angst, and solace in music and punk communities. Minus all the drug use, this looks a lot like my 90s diaries. Raw and powerful.)

Filed under: Book Reviews