"Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights" by Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace

"Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights" by Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace is a very informative biography of Jonathan Daniels life and giving everything to the Civil Rights Movement.  The book starts off telling much of Jonathan Daniels childhood and how he was raised, and on up to becoming an adult and him being unsure of what he wanted to do in his life.  Finally after much time, he decided to become a member of the Clergy.  In his early years in school to go into clergy, he attended the march on Washington and attended the "I Have A Dream" speech.  Later he continued to get involved in the Civil Rights Movement until he was murdered in 1965. The book continues to tell the events after his murder including the trial of Tom Coleman, the murderer of Jonathan Daniels.  He was acquitted and this started a movement to change the system in which juries are appointed.


Pros:
A historical book telling the story of a man that died fighting for Civil Rights.

Cons:
none


https://www.boydsmillspress.com/bmp/news/2016/09/true-story-activism-and-sacrifice-civil-rights-blood-brother-jonathan-daniels-and

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FGVZJ1W/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

"Stop. Breathe. Chill.: Meditations For A Less Stressful, More Awesome Life" by Beth Stebner

"Stop. Breathe. Chill.: Meditations For A Less Stressful, More Awesome Life" by Beth Stebner was an excellent book.  I originally chose this book because I have been on and off practicing meditation to help myself with various issues.  I thought that maybe this book can help me learn some new techniques while also learning about books for young adults.  I really enjoyed reading it, but I did notice that it is written more for a female audience than for a male audience, and I wish that it was more neutral.  After ignoring that part, It really did have some great advice to help people through their daily lives.  The book is more or less set up with a page of explanation and after that a page with a guiding mantra, and they are more or less just morals to help you on a day to day basis.  Below is an example of one of the pages:

Pros:
This book can really help people deal with daily life issues by relaxing.
This book is created to help you through almost any situation that you could be going through, whether at home, with friends, at school, or even with self confidence issues.

Cons:
It is catered towards one gender and could be better if written more gender neutral.

http://dadofdivas-reviews.blogspot.com/2016/04/book-review-stop-breathe-chill.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENYMAY2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Booked By Kwame Alexander

"Booked" by Kwame Alexander was an excellent book and it is awesome that it is written in a poetic nature.  The content of the book at first glance seems to just be about soccer, and I really had no idea what it was going to actually be about.  I read the book "The Crossover" by Kwame Alexander recently and that is what led me to choose this book.  After the first few pages or so, it really seemed like a bland story about a teen having regular problems with parents and enjoying the game of soccer and having a crush on a girl that he was scared to talk to.  Finally there comes a point in which the parents of Nick, the narrator and main character of the story tell Nick that they are separating.  Throughout the book, this becomes a main topic along with soccer and his crush, and he ends up in the hospital and he thinks that his parents a reconciling, but turns out they are getting divorced.  Things do end up going well with his crush as well as other things in his life as well.  This story probably strikes home  for a lot of readers, because divorce is more and more common and children are left in the middle of it.

Pros:
Amazing book to help develop vocabulary, and there are footnotes defining difficult words on a lot of pages.
The book is very relate-able to youth and adults whose parents went through a divorce process.
Though serious topics are touched on, the book does a good job of keeping things light by adding humor in, as shown below:

Cons:
Takes a little while to get into.
Could be difficult for young readers to understand with the poetry and some strong vocabulary.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/books/review/kwame-alexanders-booked.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011H55HS6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPEucLQ4pSE

Trashed by Derf Backderf

Trashed by Derf Backderf was quite the interesting read.  The story was a fiction story but it also had quite a bit of Non-fictional information.  First off, the fiction part of the story was a loosely based account of the authors time as a trash collector.  The story was quite funny at points, especially when various city employees in the book would prank each other.  Also the part of the story about the horrible boss is something that we all can relate to.  The non-fiction part of the story consisted of minor segues into informational text about the operations of the trash system in this country.  It spoke of the different ways that different parts of the country operated their trash pickups.  A small town versus a major city has very different procedures for trash collection.

Pros:
Interesting story.
Learned a lot about trash collection.
I now am more mindful of what I throw away, and want to do a better job at recycling and preserving the environment.

Cons:
You now become more mindful of what you throw away and feel bad about it.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24795950-trashed

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0164PX4Y8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hovuz0G3P34

Bitter End By: Jennifer Brown

Bitter End By: Jennifer Brown

Bitter end it is about a girl named Alex who moves to a new school and ends up falling for what seems like perfect guy her senior year of high school. As the story goes on her boyfriend ends up being more possessive and not liking her guy friends and then even her friends who are girls. Her boyfriend call ends up making a lot of verbal threats to her and even when she is scared she still stays with him. The book doesn't really go into why he is verbally abusive towards her and why Alex really decide to stay with him but also at her Friends never come and try and help her or get adults involved when they see that Alex is stuck in this relationship. So the book goes into abusive relationships and also the confusing aspects of being a teenager in being in relationships and having friends at the same time. 

Pros: can open up a discussion of abusive relationships and how to deal with them

Cons: The ending of the story is not educational so something that would've been better would have been if the friends intervened and she actually got help from adults or her friends actually try to keep helping her even when she told them that she was she was not okay.

Links: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVlWqx-iAlo

https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/6304/bitter-end

https://www.amazon.com/Bitter-End-Jennifer-Brown/dp/0316086967

Dogs of War By: Sheila Keenan

Dogs of War By: Sheila Keenan

Initially I did not want to read this book. I get very emotional about animals and dogs especially and I knew that this was not going to be a pleasant read whatsoever but honestly it was surprisingly raw and just real, aside from it being sad. The book takes you through 3 separate stories of 3 different dogs and their soldiers in each WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War. The book also has illustration which I thought was cool and as a war book it wasn't just a history book the structures of stories and 3 different one versus one whole drawn out sad story was good as well. I would say more people who like war books and movies would like this and violence but also no gory bits which was surprisingly not in there because the book does not avoid the intense violence of the wars especially the Vietnam war.
Pros: 3 stories kept it fresh as it changed things up, illustrations were pared well and each story flowed pretty well after one another
Cons: it would sometimes get a bit dull but pick back up and not true stories which I think could make for a more educational book

Links:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/dogs-of-war-by-sheila-keenan/

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sheila-keenan/dogs-of-war/

I Am J By: Cris Beam

I Am J By: Cris Beam

This book was a great read and has a great theme. The book is about a boy born into a girl's body. The story goes into the life and hardships of being transgender and what it's like to experience hate and confusion in yourself in a society who doesn't really understand it. Also the book goes into not just self discovery and acceptance but relationships as well. The main character J, in the book is having a difficult time and feeling as if his body did not do what it was supposed to when he was born and he ends up wrapping his breast and dressing as much like a "boy" as possible but going through acceptance of others and learning more about what testosterone could do to help him is also just past of what he goes through. I myself have a friend who has actually read this book and she is trans. I was blessed enough to be friends with her through the transition and although she is transitioned she mentioned that she learns so much everyday now but is just so much happier as her outside finally reflects her inside and she actually loved the book as well!
Pros: Can open up strands minds, can be relatable and help those transitioning and those who know them.
Cons: The characters can get confusing at times and there is a lot of dialogue that takes up a lot of the book and it seems as if it goes over a few weeks versus months.

Links:

http://www.librarything.com/work/9923971/reviews/64512751

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b99i1QypP-g

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March By: Cynthia Levinson

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March By: Cynthia Levinson

I personally was really excited to read this book again, when I saw that it was on one of the lists I was so happy! I myself love History but I tend to get bored when reading about it unless it is in story form or I know it is all true. The author takes us through the background of different children who participated in the civil rights movement. The book tells us exactly the thing that people and especially these young kids and teens were going through. For example they ended up creating work shows to teach each other on how to stay safe when being sprayed by a giant water hose and how not to react when they were being called foul names and spat at my random strangers because they had a different skin tone than them. When reading it the stories are very humbling in knowing you have not had to go through horrific things like that. You also get to learn what they learned and saw how young people took a stand because they as young people had less to loose versus their parents who were working and providing for them and took care of the rest of they families.

Pros: Learn more about history through story and can be more interesting to people, and young adults can relate to this as they were being told about people their age in a different setting

Cons: The only down side is that it is pretty text heavy and a reader cannot skip around but thats how most books are anyways.

Some links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNON7TDbUg

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/weve-got-a-job-cynthia-levinson/1110790597?ean=9781561458448

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12715346-we-ve-got-a-job