The Purple Bears of Berry Forest is a beautiful, and at times quite bittersweet story about the purple bears, who live on the berries they find in their forest. When they lose their home, they must journey to find somewhere new so they can survive. They travel far, meeting many other kinds of bears along the way and learning from them. Will they ever find a new home? 

This book explores the importance of home, and especially the homes of animals and how vital they are to their survival. However, this story is also an interesting starting point for discussions with younger children about climate change consequences, as well as issues about migration, acceptance, and integration. The illustrations throughout the book are truly artistic and wonderful full of detail and in a beautiful water-color style. 

The Last Bear is a whimsical story, perfect for any child who loves adventure and animals. It follows a young animal-loving girl named April, whose scientist father is sent to the Arctic for his job. April tags along and embarks on a journey to save a polar bear who has been separated from his home. This book also explores climate change in a way that is very accessible for younger readers to understand and is a great introduction into understanding climate change and collective responsibility. The language can at times be a bit advanced, but in a way that provides really great learning opportunities to expand comprehension skills and vocabulary. It is a really sweet story about love and respect of all living things, friendship, and courage, and will leave you hopeful and inspired.

Happy reading!

Emma

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF one or both 'bear' books

Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were begins in the 1980’s, in a fictional village whose land has been invaded and occupied by an American oil company that plunders the areas resources, leaving the village and it’s children dying from toxic chemicals and poisoned water. 

Every eight weeks, the company representatives host a meeting in the village alongside the corrupt village leader, where concerns are voiced and promises for action are made, but the people have long since believing help will ever come. Their government is in cahoots with the oil company, leaving them to figure out for themselves how they will protect themselves and the future of their children. During the meeting, Konga, the madman of the village, stands and offers the villagers another avenue of action which will change the future of generations to come. 

This story explores the deep-rooted nuances of capitalism, neo-colonialism, power, and corruption, and “charts the ways repression, be it at the hands of a government or a corporation or a society, can turn the most basic human needs into radical and radicalizing acts”. 

Mbue has proved herself a skilled storyteller, whose prose is so vivid and will take you through an unbelievable range of emotion and into the thoughts of the characters. It left me feeling bittersweet, yet hopeful the fight would go on.

Happy reading!

Reviewed by Emma

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Committed is Viet Thanh Nguyen’s sequel to his 2015 novel The Sympathizer, which explores the ‘two minds’ of a sympathetic half-Vietnamese, half-French communist spy during the Vietnam war. 

We follow our nameless protagonist upon his arrival in Paris as a refugee, after having endured torturous re-education. Here, our narrator becomes involved with a criminal line of work, dealing drugs for a Chinese gangster as an attempt to escape his past and build a new future. 

Being of two minds, the Sympathizer finds himself both seduced and abhorred by the dominant French culture, on the one hand finding the capitalist and intellectual norm attractive, and on the other hand seeing France as a brutal colonizer, ignorant of its racial dominance and discrimination. 

As he grows increasingly plagued by his two minds, sympathizing with any and all sides of a dilemma, he becomes only more confused about who he is and what he believes – perhaps he believes only in nothing. The question he cannot seem to settle is: to what is he committed? 

This novel is full of philosophical reflections on Sartre, Voltaire, Césaire, which our protagonist uses to explore his internal conflicts, sometimes resulting in rants that last an entire page or two. This can at times feel a bit heavy, but it also works to carry the energy of desperation that the Sympathizer struggles to resolve. 

The novel comprehensively explores the contradictions of Western society, and particularly applies this in the context of refugee and immigrant experiences with discrimination and otherness. 

I found it to be a truly fascinating and complex novel and I couldn’t put it down. 

Happy reading!

Reviewed by Emma

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

I must say that I have found my new favorite book! Truly Devious is a mystery that switches between when Ellingham Academy first opened and the present day. We see a new mystery unfold in front of Stevie’s, the main character, eyes while she is already occupied with the mystery that is already connected with Ellingham Academy. 

Stevie is an anxious girl who loves true crime. She doesn’t just love it but she wants to pursue it as her career which is why Ellingham Academy is the perfect place for her. Ellingham Academy is a school for talented individuals to practice their talent hopefully being able to make that talent blossom into a promising career in that field. Stevie is particularly happy when she is accepted to the academy since she is hell-bent on solving the case surrounding Ellingham Academy. Little does she know when she steps onto the Ellingham Academy grounds that she will experience her own mystery during her time at Ellingham Academy.

The story does a great job of switching between the past and the present while still being able to follow along and not get confused. We get a great look into the characters and their personalities and can understand their decisions and choices.

The book is well written, has a good and exciting plot, and has interesting characters. Definitely a book I will re-read again and again.

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (Book 2)

Wow. Just wow. The second book might be better than the first. The Vanishing Stair dives deeper into the mysteries that surround Ellingham Academy, both past and present.

Stevie is back at Ellingham Academy and things are now more complicated than before. She is still absorbed by the Ellingham case from home but would do anything to get back to the academy and her friends. Which makes the surprise waiting for her at home after a certain school day very welcome, no matter how deceptive it is. Even though she wants to focus on the cases at hand she now also has to focus on something else, or someone else. David. The guy she kissed. The one person who will now unknowingly be keeping her at Ellingham Academy.

One thing I failed to mention in my review of the first book Truly Devious was the casual non-binary representation. By this, I mean that the non-binary character Vi just is. There’s no drama between them and other characters, they are referred to as the proper pronouns, and they have a healthy romantic relationship with another character who identifies as female. Being part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, seeing this type of representation without all the drama and trauma, even though that also has its place, was a breath of fresh air. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and loved all the twists and turns and I believe it was a very well-done sequel. 

Reviewed by Daniela Sarah Gram

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson