Tiny Navajo Reads: Concrete Rose

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

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*Published January 12, 2021 by Balzer+Bray*

A look into the lives of of Starr’s parents before we knew them in The Hate U Give and how they much the choices they made influenced the choices Starr and her friends/family made in their book.

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.

Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.

Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

What stuck out to me most when I started reading this book was how unprepared Maverick was to become a parent. How much it took out of him to start looking after a person that he brought into this world. Not on purpose, mind you, he was being safe, but that doesn’t always count for much. I could feel his terror at having to raise a little human being as well as his want to be a good parent, even if it means that things that he had planned for his life didn’t turn out the way he initially planned them to do.

We see how much this unexpected part of life caught up to him and how much this requires him to change his outlook on life and his ability to work to provide for his son, whom he has named Seven, and to help out his mother as much as possible. We see Mav start to try to change, to get out of King Lord life and to live cleanly in order to be there for his children. Yes, children, as this is when he and Lisa (Starr’s mother) get pregnant. This time they were not smart. This time, Maverick did not think. This time, it isn’t thought through and it gets both of them. And now with two kids to provide for, because Maverick will provide for his kids, he starts to make dumb decisions, decisions that could end him up in the exact same place his own father is, prison.

This story is all about learning how to make choices that will make your life better. Not your friends’ lives, not your parents’ lives, but your life. It means making hard choices in order to make sure that you are there for those you love and are able to support them in ways that will make them proud of you. It’s about choosing to become a better version of yourself and learning from your mistakes. And Maverick makes a lot of mistakes in this novel, you can see it and I can see it. I could see where his thoughts were going and I just wanted to reach through the novel and just shake him, saying “Don’t do it!!!” But it’s not my life, it is Maverick’s, and those were his choices to make.

Along with those choices though, you have to be willing to follow through with the consequences. You can choose your choices, but you cannot choose your consequences. Those you are stuck with and how you respond to the consequences of your choices will show you what kind of person you are. Maverick starts to learn this and starts to learn that if he wants to be a better parent than his father, to be there for his kids as they actually grow up, then he needs to make the choices that will keep him there. And he has the support system to do so. I loved seeing how much support and love Mav has, not only with his family, but his extended family, his mother, the couple next door that own the small grocery in their neighborhood, everyone who is willing to stand up and give Mav a chance to learn and give him the support he needs in order to learn.

This book has a lot of good things going for it. It shows a look into the lives of teenagers who are still trying to be kids and have fun, but need to grow up quick in order to become parents. It shows that there is love and support everywhere you need it, and it shows that you can choose to do better and be better. It’s all up to you what you decide to do in your own life.

Tiny Navajo Reads: Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

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*Published January 19, 2021 by Dutton Books for Young Readers*

*TW: PARENTAL ABUSE, HOMOPHOBIA, RACISM, RACIAL SLURS, INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA, DEPORTATION*

This was a good look into what life was like for WLW in the 1950s.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare.

“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

To learn to love in a time of unrest for you and your family is always hard. It’s even harder to do when you learn that who you love is considered perverted/strange/not real and your family is in danger of being deported for political affiliations that are considered dangerous. For Lilly though, this is exactly what is happening as she comes of age in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954. You can feel the tension and unrest that comes from living in a time where gay/lesbian bars were raided and the Red Scare was in full effect.

As Lilly learns to navigate these new waters, not only of exploring and finding her sexual identity and awareness are shared by others, that she is not strange, but belief in herself as a Chinese American young woman is a strong flame burning inside of her, Lilly also learns that sometimes family and friends will say things that are hurtful and harmful, even if they’re said with the best of intentions.

Learning about yourself is always scary, especially when you’re learning that you’re something that has been deemed wrong, or inappropriate by society. Yet Lilly is still willing to learn about this part of herself, and learn more about those women who love other women, that women can dress masculine, and many other things. And she learns that there are many other women out there like her, and they meet in clubs like the Telegraph Club. There is space carved out for people like her, by people like her; all she needs to do is find those spaces and learn how to fill in those spaces.

For a lot of us, and Lilly also learns this, we need to learn to take control of our lives and live them the way we want to live them. We cannot live for other people, we can only live for ourselves and we can only do that when we are true to ourselves. We cannot be scared to be ourselves, else we will never learn what the world has in store for us. It is terrifying and we may lose some people along the way, but if we do, then we don’t need those people in our lives. How have you learned to let yourself live as yourself? What have you learned about yourself in this way? Comment below and let me know! I’m still learning how to live for myself, but I’m getting closer and closer each day!

Tiny Navajo Reads: A Pho Love Story

A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

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*Published February 9, 2021 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers*

This was such a sweet book! And I love pho, so a love story about two warring pho families with their kids having no idea why they’re fighting, a savory Romeo and Juliet! Only no one dies at the end!

A Pho Love Story by Loan Lee

When Dimple Met Rishi meets Ugly Delicious in this funny, smart romantic comedy, in which two Vietnamese-American teens fall in love and must navigate their newfound relationship amid their families’ age-old feud about their competing, neighboring restaurants.

If Bao Nguyen had to describe himself, he’d say he was a rock. Steady and strong, but not particularly interesting. His grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ pho restaurant, and even there, he is his parents’ fifth favorite employee. Not ideal.

If Linh Mai had to describe herself, she’d say she was a firecracker. Stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and spark and fire. She loves art and dreams pursuing a career in it. The only problem? Her parents rely on her in ways they’re not willing to admit, including working practically full-time at her family’s pho restaurant.

For years, the Mais and the Nguyens have been at odds, having owned competing, neighboring phở restaurants. Bao and Linh, who’ve avoided each other for most of their lives, both suspect that the feud stems from feelings much deeper than friendly competition.

But then a chance encounter brings Linh and Bao together despite their best efforts and sparks fly, leading them both to wonder what took so long for them to connect. But then, of course, they immediately remember.

Can Linh and Bao find love in the midst of feuding families and complicated histories?

This is probably one of the sweetest books I’ve read in a long time. I read it all in one day in fact, that can tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It has food, it has gentle romance, it has an age old family feud, it has FLUFF!!! And sometimes, you just need to enjoy the fluff of a good book. There is a lot more to this book than fluff though! Underneath all the fluff is all the hard stuff about being the sons and daughters of immigrant families that just want the best for you.

For Bao and Linh, living up to their parents expectations is one of the hardest things for them to do. Bao, as he’s not sure what he wants to do after high school, and his family just kind of wants him to pick something so that he’ll be taken care of. Linh, she loves art, the drawing, the painting, the creation of it all, but her parents don’t see that as a viable option for a career. It’s a “good hobby,” but it won’t keep her secure after graduation.

As they both struggle to figure out how to navigate their families’ feud, as well as figure out their own lives, Bao and Linh start to realize that they may have found what they’re looking for in each other. Not the career paths or anything, but just getting to know each other as friends and knowing that each has a similar childhood having grown up with parents building up their restaurants and they can empathize with each other as well.

When Linh’s friend and Bao’s classmate (same person) assign them a new beat for the school newspaper, they both discover what they truly love doing; Bao sees that he has an ability and love for writing, while Linh further sets her heart on pursuing art anyway possible after high school. But as Linh struggles to figure out how to get her parents to listen to her and believe she wants and needs to pursue art, Bao has a slightly easier time telling his mother that while he has made a choice for his future, it may not be the one his parents like, but they understand that it’s his choice.

And all of this is happening while their families are basically gunning to put the other out of business for a reason neither Bao nor Linh really know, and when they try to find out, their parents state it’s not for them to know, only grown-ups should worry about it. Which is a frustrating thing to hear when you’re treated as an adult in other aspects of your life. It’s when Bao and Linh start to dig into their families’ pasts a bit more that they realize there is a LOT more going on than either set of parents let on, and it goes back a long ways.

Parental expectations and trying to find your own path battle inside Linh and Bao and how they deal with it is different for both. As they continue to figure out their lives and their families live, they start to struggle to see how they can be together, even just as friends. So, when the past comes back to bite, it takes more than it probably should have, and Bao and Linh need to figure out how to process everything.

I won’t tell you the ending, as it’s interesting to the story and to them. But it does go to show that you don’t always know what’s going on with your family, even if you have grown up with them. And what is buried in the past will eventually come to light and it may not be the best things you have ever heard about your family. Either way, everyone will need to deal with it eventually.

I really loved this book and while I may make it sound like a downer here, it is a really nice book, with parts that made me laugh and parts that made me feel for both Bao and Linh as they try to figure out their own ways to live their lives, and how to tell their parents no. I highly recommend you read this book if just to get some perspective that what we see is not always what we get.

Tiny Navajo Reads: La Luna

La Luna by Enrico Casarosa

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*Published May 15, 2021*

I have seen the short for this a few times and it’s simply a beautiful little short, and I have read the book for it now to get ready for a starry storytime that I’ll be recording for my library in the next few days.

La Luna by Enrico Casarosa

La Luna is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise is in store for the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Or will he be able to find his own way? This charming picture book is filled with incredible illustrations, and its unique story based on the Disney*Pixar short film is sure to delight.

This is a truly sweet story. A little boy who goes out with his father and grandfather and learns the family trade of cleaning the stars from the moon. I really love the drawings and the simplicity of the story, yet there is a teaching in the story. The boy is told very little, only that there are small things that need to be done, with his father showing him one way and his grandfather showing him another. Throughout the story, it’s almost like he is being pulled between two people. Yet, when a large start crashes into the moon and neither the father or the grandfather can figure out how to get the star to move. Eventually, the boy does something different from both of mentors/teachers and he is the one to finally disperse the star.

This is such a beautiful book and I love the story and the simplicity of all of it. There’s not much to dislike about this book, and I truly love that about this book. I should read more kids’ books more often, they are just a breath of fresh air. When have you learned to walk your own path verses the paths of others? What path is your own? Comment below and let me know!

Tiny Navajo Reads: Look Both Ways

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Alexander Nabaum

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*Published October 8, 2019*

This was a very sweet book, and I liked that it focused on the minutiae of the everyday lives of the teens in the book. And it all stems from how the teens walk to or from school.

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Block by Jason Reynolds

From National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a novel told in ten blocks, showing all they different directions a walk home can take.

This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy—

Talking about boogers. Stealing pocket change. Skateboarding. Wiping out. Braving up. Executing complicated handshakes. Planning an escape. Making jokes. Lotioning up. Finding comfort. But mostly, too busy walking home.

Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.

Your life, your coworkers life, you kids’ life, your kids’ friends’ life, so many lives that you touch on a daily basis. Well, I hope you’re not touching right now, what with the social distancing and making sure everyone is safe, but you know what I mean. The way we live our lives, touches the lives of many other people in ways we can’t even imagine. The kids you seeing roughhousing in the hallway after school are the best friends you ever did meet. The kids who take your pocket change, just the change you have wandering around in your pocket, to buy ice cream for one’s sick mother. One of the coolest guys in school is scared of dogs, and plans his escape route should one start to chase him.

You never know what is going on in the lives of others, no matter the circumstances. And you interactions with that person may be the brightest thing in their lives that day. Or, it could be the worst thing to happen to them but they don’t want to let on that what you’re doing is affecting them so.

Think about your day, and think about your daily interactions, and think about the lives those interactions are taking a part of. And as with this book, think about how your interactions may be affecting others. I know that’s a hard sell right now, but try to think and reflect on how you can make not only your day better, but the days of others better.

I know that this sounds SUPER preachy right now, but sometimes we need the preach. And sometimes we need to listen to someone who is not ourselves or our family members. Take a look at Look Both Ways and make sure that you’re able to start looking both ways as well.

Tiny Navajo Reads: Apple in the Middle

Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley

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*Published August 2, 2018*

This was surprisingly good. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but it was one that called out to me just based on the description, so I thought I would give it a try.

Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley

Apple Starkington turned her back on her Native American heritage the moment she was called a racial slur. Not that she really even knew HOW to be an Indian in the first place. Too bad the white world doesn’t accept her either. So began her quirky habits to gain acceptance. Apple’s name, chosen by her Indian mother on her deathbed, has a double meaning: treasured apple of my eye, but also the negative connotation: a person who is red, or Indian, on the outside, but white on the inside. After her wealthy [white] father gives her the boot one summer, Apple reluctantly agrees to visit her Native American relatives on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in northern North Dakota for the first time, which should be easy, but it’s not. Apple shatters Indian stereotypes and learns what it means to find her place in a world divided by color.

I do kind of wish I had this book when I was younger. I am Native American, but I was raised white. Through no fault of my parents, I didn’t really know a whole lot about my culture growing up, just what I could see around our house and going to visit my cheii and nalí on the reservation growing up. I actually grew to know my culture more in college when I started taking Navajo language classes. But knowing that there were other kids out there like me, even if they were different tribes, I wouldn’t have felt as stuck, maybe. I honestly can’t tell you for certain, as I can’t play the “what if” game.

This book is about family and knowing when to reach out to your family. It’s about knowing that your family is always there for you, even if you’ve never met them before. Stories about family and reconnecting with your family, especially for young girls are some of my favourites. And this book is definitely out there for those who are like Apple, and who may be like me, just a little bit stuck in both worlds and yet not at all.

Tiny Navajo Reads: Fry Bread

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

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*Published October 22, 2019*

I was curious about how many books there were for little kids in my library system about Native Americans and I found a few, this being once of them. A wonderfully cute story about fry bread, a type of bread most Native families have a recipe for, mine included.

Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate.

Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories.

Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond.

Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.

Fry bread is indeed all of these things. The last time that I had fry bread, I was actually on the Navajo Reservation, visiting my family there with my husband for the first time since we got married. One of our last nights there, all of my dad’s family gathered at my Cheii and Nali’s place and the dinner was Navajo tacos. Shi bizhi (my paternal aunt) made the fry bread, hot and fresh, another shi bizhi made the beans and meat to go on the fry bread, and my mom gathered and prepared all the condiments to do on the tacos. It was loud, there were a lot of shi bizhis and shi bizhi zhe’i yazhi (paternal uncles) and shizeedis (cousins) running around and it was family.

This is what is so great about this book is that it shows that there are a lot of different ways to make fry bread, depending on which tribe you and your family are from. It also shows that of all the different types of fry bread, none are wrong. All of them are right, because it is what your family makes. I love that about fry bread, and I love that about this book, it doesn’t say that your version is right or wrong, just that it is your family’s recipe that is the right one for you. And each batch of fry bread will be different from the batch before it, it’ll be different from person to person, tribe to tribe, just like how we as Natives are different from each other. There is no correct version because there are many versions, just like there are many different Native Americans.

What food is most indicative of your family? What food is traditional in your family? Comment below and let me know if you have tried making it for yourself yet!

Tiny Navajo Reads: Sorry for Your Loss

Sorry for Your Loss by Jessie Ann Foley

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*Published June 4, 2019*

Another book that I read for the Sequoyah Books Talks for my library system, this is one that showed the places the death of a family member leaves behind. Both heartfelt and a bit of tugging on the heartstrings.

Printz Honor winner and William Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley’s latest YA novel is a comitragic coming-of-age story about an awkward teenage guy who, after the loss of his brother, finds healing and a sense of self where he least expected to.

As the youngest of eight, painfully average Pup Flanagan is used to flying under the radar. He’s barely passing his classes. He lets his longtime crush walk all over him. And he’s in no hurry to decide on a college path. The only person who ever made him think he could be more was his older brother Patrick, the family’s golden child. But that was before Patrick died suddenly, leaving Pup with a family who won’t talk about it and acquaintances who just keep saying, “sorry for your loss.”

But when Pup excels at a photography assignment he thought he’d bomb, things start to come into focus. His dream girl shows her true colors. An unexpected friend exposes Pup to a whole new world, right under his nose. And the photograph that was supposed to show Pup a way out of his grief ultimately reveals someone else who is still stuck in their own. Someone with a secret regret Pup never could have imagined.

I will say this, Pup puts up with a lot in this book. Not only does the girl he have a crush on, as well as being friends with, just kind of dump everything in his lap without considering his side of things; with his brother dead, it seems that everyone else in his family has either forgotten him or moved on prematurely; and he’s about to fail his art class, where his teacher gives him what seems to be a life raft to help him keep afloat. All of these things resonate within Pup and show up in different ways.

What I enjoyed most about this book though was how well it not only articulated grief and dealing with grief, but love and the love of a family and how all of that can come together in order to support your family. Granted, no one’s family is the perfect family, if it were then you would need to wake me up because I am dreaming at the point. But with the fact that no one’s family is perfect, they may be perfect for you in all of their imperfections. And you may also find that what you love about your family is also what drives you up the wall about it as well.

Sorry for Your Loss is not only a story about dealing with grief and learning how to deal with the emotional loss of a family member, but it is also about learning how to love your family, with all of their quirks and musings. While this was a quick read for me, it is one that left an impact on me and one that I will most likely recommend to anyone who is trying to deal with grief and all the symptoms that it brings. What about you? What books have you read that have left an impact on your life? Comment below and let me know!

Tiny Navajo Reads: Genesis Begins Again

Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

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*Published January 15, 2019*

As we are transitioning from summer and the Summer Reading Program in my library system and heading into the new school year, my library system is working on ways to still work and connect with our schools. One way that we’re doing that is by doing book talks for the Sequoyah Winners this year, and I did three of them. This is one of them and I have to say that I’m glad I read this book.

A Newbery Honor Book Winner of the Correta Scott King – John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award A Morris Award Finalist An NPR Favorite Book of 2019 A School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself. There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant—even her own family. And #61: Because her family is always being put out of their house, belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see. When your dad is a gambling addict and loses the rent money every month, eviction is a regular occurrence. What’s not so regular is that this time they all don’t have a place to crash, so Genesis and her mom have to stay with her grandma. It’s not that Genesis doesn’t like her grandma, but she and Mom always fight—Grandma haranguing Mom to leave Dad, that she should have gone back to school, that if she’d married a lighter skinned man none of this would be happening, and on and on and on. But things aren’t all bad. Genesis actually likes her new school; she’s made a couple friends, her choir teacher says she has real talent, and she even encourages Genesis to join the talent show. But how can Genesis believe anything her teacher says when her dad tells her the exact opposite? How can she stand up in front of all those people with her dark, dark skin knowing even her own family thinks lesser of her because of it? Why, why, why won’t the lemon or yogurt or fancy creams lighten her skin like they’re supposed to? And when Genesis reaches #100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on, or can she find the strength to begin again?

This was a sweet and powerful book about the darkness of one’s skin can affect your life, even if you said or think it does not. Now, as a preface, I am not Black, nor am I African-American. I do have darker skin, but it’s because I am Native American. I have no idea what it is like to be Black in the United States. All I can tell you is what I felt while reading this book.

What I felt while reading this book was a uniquely direct since of disproportionate power. There is power in being a lighter shade of black, as shown in Genesis’s own family. Her mother is lighter skinned, her grandmother is lighter skinned, and even her own father stated that Genesis was supposed to come out looking like her mother, and not like him. I cannot begin to image just how devastating that would be to hear as a small child, that your father is angry because you look more like him than your mother.

I also felt that Genesis was, and is, a product not only of her nature, but of her nurturing. What you hear as you grow up is what the voice in your head starts to tell you as well, and so at some point, you WILL start telling yourself all the negative things that you hear everyone else say about you. This all changes, or at least starts to change, when she ends up changing schools because of some housing issues. She starts to make friends with those who are different from her as well as friends who come from at least a similar background than her. And when she starts to find that there are things that she likes about herself, she starts to realize that maybe that is what she needed to start helping her family as well.

All in all, I think what I loved most about this story is that there are things that you can unlearn about yourself, and there are things that you can learn to love about yourself that you didn’t use to love about yourself. And I think that’s what most beautiful about this book and Genesis, that you can teach yourself new things, and those new things can help you.

What have you relearned about yourself? What have you unlearned about yourself? And yes, those are different things. Comment below and let me know!

Tiny Navajo Reads: All the Crooked Saints

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

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*Published August 28, 2018*

I have had this book on my physical shelves for a couple of years. I actually won it as a prize for my library’s Summer Reading Program. It just sounded like it would be an excellent book of magic and fantasy set in the 1960s in Colorado.

Here is a thing everyone wants:
A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears:
What it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado, is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

This was such an interesting book! I loved reading about the Soria cousins, as they seek to do what their family has done for generations; provide miracles for those who seek them out. One caveat: they cannot help the pilgrims overcome the price for their miracle. Now the Sorias are surrounded by pilgrims who will not leave with their miracles attached to them in such public ways.

When Daniel, the current Saint of Bicho Raro, leaves, having attracted a price for inadvertently helping a pilgrim, his cousins do all that they can to seek him out and save him from his own darkness. And the darkness of a Soria is the darkest of them all.

This is a story about love; familial, romantic, platonic, just about all the love you can think of and how that love is not only a saving grace for some people, but it’s a lifeline for them as well. I love the story of love and forgiveness and family. The cousins learn that there is more out there, and the pilgrims learn to talk about their problems as well as their miracles. If anything, this book highlights the need for people to talk about their feelings and what is causing those feelings. And believe me, All the Crooked Saints gave me all the feelings!

What book gives you all the feels? Do you need to talk about the feels the books have given you to any and everyone? Comment below and let me know!