February 3-5, 2021: Random Round-Up

Sharks in the Time of Saviors is the debut novel by Kawai Strong Washburn. If you’ve ever felt the pull of distant family, the burden of a responsibility you don’t want or understand, and the need to feel connected to something bigger, this book explores all of that and more. Nainoa Flores is seven years old when he falls into the ocean off the coast of his native Hawaii and is delivered safely to his mother in the gentle jaws of a shark. Not only does his rescue become local legend, but abilities appear that seem to be a sign of the Hawaiian gods’ favor. However, Noa’s abilities are not all they seem, driving a wedge between the family with impacts for years to come. Amid descriptions of the lush beauty of Hawaii and its culture are the gritty and vivid realities of life, financial hardship, and the struggle to survive.

Ring Shout is a novella from P. Djèlí Clark that puts a seriously creepy supernatural spin on the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920's. Opportunistic monsters that feed on human hatred have found their perfect food source in the Klan, and as ordinary human Klansmen unleash metaphorical hell on Black Americans, the monsters plot to unleash very literal hell on everyone. Luckily, Maryse Boudreaux and a few other freedom fighters can see them for what they truly are. Armed with swords, rifles, and Gullah folk magic, they're fighting to save the world from its own devastating hatred. Ring Shout clocks in at less than 200 pages, so it doesn't take long to read, but it'll stay with you for a long time afterward.

Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown is a heartwarming young adult novel that was just named a Stonewall Honor book by the American Library Association. It kicks off with our protagonist Liz learning that she has not received the crucial music scholarship to help her attend college. So she does something completely out of the normal for her: enters the contest to be Prom Queen, which comes with a hefty scholarship of its own. Along the way, awkward Liz starts to find her confidence as a Black girl in a very white school, reconnects with an old friend, and finds love with her competition, making this a delightful queer romance that brims with optimism and emotion. You Should See Me in a Crown is a true pick-me-up of a book for these dark winter days!.