This was great. Jo is a Chinese-American girl living in the South. Her and her adoptive father, Old Gin, face rampant discrimination, especially considering the fact that they are treated as "in-between" - they are not colored, but they are not white, either. They are treated poorly, while also facing the realization that many segregation rules do not seem to specifically apply to them. When Jo is fired from her job, she takes up her previously position as lady's maid for a girl she grew up being mistreated by. At the same time, the newspaper shop they live under is at risk of going out of business if they don't come up with some great new idea to get a whole lot of subscribers. Enter Jo, who under the anonymous name of Miss Sweetie decides to start writing an advice column that challenges many of the racist and sexist ideas her society is filled with. Of course, this brings with it a whole host of problems - Jo's writing is a crime in and of itself, and she will be chased out of town if anyone finds out that she is Miss Sweetie. She also has to balance staying hidden underneath the printshop, bite her tongue when it comes to the cruel things her mistress says, and ignore the fact that Old Gin seems to be doing something sneaky that she worries may have to do with marrying her off to a stranger. And, of course, she's still curious about where she came from - who were her parents, and why did they abandon her with Old Gin to begin with? Jo is a great role model for young girls to look up to - she is spunky and has her own thoughts and opinions that she is not afraid to share with others. She is a big risk taker, and an absolute delight to read about.

This was a very funny book that was fun to read. As the pages are short and it was a graphic novel I wish it was a little more in depth but overall it is a good book.

Fun summer read! Quick read and love that it takes place in NYC and Westchester County. Also a story line very much in the news concerning college admissions with a different twist. Her characters are always so true to life and always get a good laugh from her stories!

Great end of the world story about survival

Fun book with onomanopeia (though I am awful at spelling that). The storyline was fun, the characters were clever, and the sounds the animals would make was really inventive. It could be a fun series book at some point. Love the illustrations.

The is an amazing book which recounts the experiences of the author visiting 7 locations and reflecting on the visit as a Black male. The research on the legacy of slavery adds to the recollections of his experiences and shines a light on why history is so important to learn, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

I have only ever read one book by Jodi Picoult before so was not sure I would like this but it was a very clever and interesting story with a twist at the end. Also it had a lot of interesting information on elephants which has made me want to investigate them a bit more too.

I had a weird feeling about this book as soon as one character saw a boy bleeding to death in a field and decided it was appropriate and normal to refer to him as the "beautiful boy." I kept going, and this book was just not entirely what I thought it was going to be. The expectation here would have been that this book was about finding whoever was responsible for hurting Karel, the boy left to die in the field, but that's really not the point at all. This is more a coming of age story about the three children who found him. Matthew is dealing with his new realization that the world has darkness and is unfair, and that sometimes finding answers doesn't bring you the closure you wanted in life. Zoe has just found out that one of her parents is involved in an affair that she can tell no one about, unless she wants to risk breaking apart her family. On the same vein, she's exploring the idea of love figuring out who she wants to be. Duncan, the youngest, has taken the trauma of finding a dying boy in a new direction - he has realization that, being adopted, now is the time for him to seek out his first mother, before something happens to her.

"It's like when a plane descends, you know? Gradually, down through the clouds, and suddenly you can't see anything? Except, with a plane, eventually you see the city. There was no city for me." Filthy Animals revolves around the lives of three characters - Charles and Sophie, two dancers that are in a questionably open relationship, and Lionel, a man they meet at a dinner party who is dealing with the fallout from a failed suicide attempt. The majority of the stories follow one or all of these characters, with a few outlier stories that deal with other people struggling through life. All of the stories are poignant, as the characters deal with terminal medical diagnosis, the loss of estranged family members, and most of all, the inability to fully achieve what you want in life. I really enjoyed the stories about the main three, but some of the secondary stories dragged a little more. In some ways, the stories all seemed a little too similar. It was a quick read, but in this case that might not have been a good thing.

It was good. It left me on a cliffhanger at the end