Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery Newletter

Youth Yak

Page One Staff Picks Youth Yak Book Groups News



Cascade				Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition Anton Truer Written in sections of bite-sized Q&A format with illustrations makes this an engaging and fairly quick read. Covering a lot of ground, you will find sections on everything from history to social activism to tribal politics. I really enjoyed that it managed to be personal to the author and his experience as well as nuanced to encompass differing views and values of various Native communities. This cleared up a lot of reservation and custom questions I personally had and would be a good companion to The Firekeeper’s Daughter which has been widely popular in the store this summer (you should probably read it if you haven’t already). There are many stereotypes and an incomplete history that so many of us learn about Indigenous people that I think nearly everyone could benefit from reading parts, if not all, of this book.


Megan				Living with Viola Rosena Fung Living with Viola is a beautifully written graphic novel about having anxiety. It’s about a girl named Olivia, who has just moved to a new school that her parents say is “bigger and better for her.” Within the first few pages, the reader can see that next to Olivia is a dark blue version of her that follows her around. This is Viola, the person who is constantly bringing her down and causing her to worry about everything. Olivia loves to draw and hopes to be an artist one day, but her family is not supportive of this because they don’t believe that it is a real job. While attending a new school, Olivia is struggling with making friends, her parents proud, and good grades. I really enjoyed how the story showed how anxiety can look different for everybody, and the importance of asking for help when you need it. I would recommend this book to those who are 10 years old or older.
				Kaleidoscope Brian Selznick Kaleidoscope is an interesting book. My reasoning for saying interesting rather than good, ok, or fair is because each person who reads it will interpret it in their own way. My interpretation of the book changed throughout each story. It was super fun to have multiple theories and ideas while reading it. I read the back of the book after I finished it, and doing so it helped me create my own theories without being influenced by anything. After reading the back, some of my theories changed, so I’m glad that I didn’t read it right away. It’s hard to say what the book is about because I don’t want to influence anyone with my interpretations, but what I will say is that the book is almost like a bunch of short stories. It’s like looking at something through a kaleidoscope and twisting it. It changes and it only looks like that in your vision, if someone else looks at the same thing it will look different to them. That is the best way I can describe this book without putting my interpretations in your mind. I would recommend this book to anyone 16 years old or older. I would probably give this book a 7 or 8/10 just because I really enjoyed having my own interpretation of it rather than just having a story that ends how it ends. Note: the book will be released September 21.


Pam				Norman Didn’t Do It Ryan T. Wiggins From the author of the Mother Bruce books comes Norman Didn’t Do It! Norman and Mildred are best friends until someone else moves in. Norman begins to feel jealous and left out. Does Norman go too far? How does he solve his problem? All children can relate to this problem of feeling left out and not knowing how to deal with the tension and jealousy. Note: Norman Didn’t Do It will be released September 7.

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Page One Staff Picks Youth Yak Book Groups News

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