identity – Mom Read It

Happy 5th Anniversary, Street Noise Books!

Posted on September 19, 2025September 19, 2025 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Street Noise Books is celebrating five years of take-no-prisoners dissident graphic novel publishing! Five years of queer, BIPOC, and neurodiverse authors publishing their own stories for adults and teens: disabled authors; trans authors; indigenous authors, authors grappling with climate change and social justice; authors struggling for mental health. Street Noise has been recognized this year alone with FOUR Eisner Awards – a heck of a birthday celebration!

I’m a Wild Seed, by Sharon Lee De La Cruz, (Apr. 2021, Street Noise Books), $12.99, ISBN: 9781951491055

Ages 16+

One of the first Street Noise books I picked up was I’m a Wild Seed: My Graphic Memoir on Queerness and Decolonizing the World by Sharon Lee De La Cruz. This full-color graphic memoir details the author’s deep-dive to learn about and unravel the effects of patriarchy and institutionalized racism on her identity, sexuality, and what freedom looks like for her. In De La Cruz’s own words, she “never ‘came into my queerness’ – I decolonized the shit out of my gender and sexuality”. Teens and young adults will embrace De La Cruz’s unflinching and often humorous storytelling. Graphic novel Sharon talks directly to the reader, making the book more of a conversation. Resources in the back matter steer readers interested in learning more to videos, organizations, and books.

If you haven’t yet treated yourself to I’m a Wild Seed, please do – and check out more of the great graphic novels from Street Noise!

I Am Jack: A Story of Imagination

Posted on February 5, 2025February 4, 2025 by Rosemary Kiladitis

I Am Jack: A Story of Imagination, by Paige Duncan/Illustrated by Julia Moroko, (Oct. 2024, Front Porch Collective), $24.99, ISBN: 9798218537722

Ages 3-6

A little boy and his mom play outside together; as he dons different outfits, Jack’s mom wonders aloud what he is. He proudly proclaims, “I am Jack!” every time. The book’s structure is set in a question-and-answer format, with Mom guessing at Jack’s identity with each new costume: a dinosaur; an astronaut; a shark, or a monster truck? “I am Jack”. The costume changes are fun and creative: he sports a basket on his back when Mom asks if he is a “trash truck”; a construction worker when he wears a box on his head (with a drawing of a construction worker on the front). The box becomes airplane wings when Mom asks if he is a plane, and they use chalk to draw train tracks on the ground while he sits in a box with wheels as Mom asks if he is a train. It’s a fun and inventive story that Moroko’s colorful and playful illustration brings to life. The repetition of question-and-answer will inspire readers to chime in during a readaloud. I Am Jack is a fun story about a playful day between a child and his mother.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Native American Heritage Month Books Worth Reading: The Flicker

Posted on November 25, 2024November 25, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Flicker, by H.E. Edgmon, (Sept. 2024, Feiwel & Friends), $9.99, ISBN: 9781250873965

Ages 9-12

A year after a solar flare – The Flicker – scorched the Earth and ended life as we know it, step-sisters Millie and Rose are orphaned. Millie, convinced her grandmother – a Seminole elder – is alive, convinces Rose to join her and their baby half-brother, Sammy, on the journey. Rose isn’t sure about how she feels, but joins Millie and Sammy, hoping to find the location of the rumored Sanctuary she hears codes from over the radio. They meet a group of kids called The Lost Boys and their leader, Ben, who was their counselor at theatre camp when the flare hit; Ben agrees to give them a lift to Millie’s grandmother’s home, but the land is full of terrors. Aside from the scorching heat and risk of wildfires, there’s The Hive: a shadowy corporation that militarized during the flare. The Hive’s soldiers hoard supplies so their people can live as if nothing ever happened, and they’ll go to any lengths to keep their people comfortable. Edgmon excels in his middle grade debut, exploring Indigenous identity through Millie and her memories of her grandmother, who has strong ties to the land. Edgmon introduces us to fully realized characters that readers will want to spend time with; Millie, though outwardly strong, is tender and vulnerable, locking all her feelings “deep inside her belly”; Rose wears her feelings on the outside for everyone to see, much to Millie’s aggravation. Sammy unites the two in their determination to protect him. Touching on themes of climate change, gender identity, and survival, The Flicker is unputdownable. An essential for middle grade collections, especially where survival fiction is popular. I loved this book.

The Flicker has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.

Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Dark Room Etiquette: A taut YA thriller

Posted on November 11, 2022November 15, 2022 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Dark Room Etiquette, by Robin Roe, (Oct. 2022, HarperTeen), $18.99, ISBN: 9780063051737

Ages 13+

Sayers Wayte is a 16-year-old with an easy life, and he knows it. Everything he knows is upended when he’s kidnapped by a man who tells Sayers that he isn’t who he believes he is. As Sayers endures imprisonment and his captor, he begins questioning his reality. A tense thriller that examines PTSD, Dark Room Etiquette becomes an intense character study as readers accompany Sayers on his journey through trauma. The story goes very dark, but is ultimately a hopeful story that readers will white-knuckle through.

Dark Room Etiquette has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

picture books, Preschool Reads

Itty-Bitty-Kitty-Corn will steal your heart

Posted on March 26, 2021March 26, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn, by Shannon Hale/Illustrated by LeUyen Pham, (March 2021, Abrams Books for Young Readers), $18.99, ISBN: 9781419750915

Ages 4-8

An adorable pink, fluffy kitten is positive she’s a unicorn. She feels like one on the inside, so she must be… a Kitty-Corn! Her friends, a parakeet and a gecko, insist that there’s no way she’s anything other than a cat -she meows in her sleep, after all! – , When a unicorn shows up to change all of that by saying that he, too, feels like a Kitty-Corn, these two new friends see one another for who they really are. Adorably illustrated, with just too-cute, huggable, expressive animals, Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn is a story of identity and seeing others for who they really are. A spread where Kitty tells Unicorn, “I see you” is beautiful; a lovely statement on visibility and existence; of knowing yourself and seeing others – and most importantly, letting others know that you see them. Cheerful, appealing characters and a lovely story flow make this a great storytime read-aloud. Publisher Abrams has a free activity kit with coloring pages. Consider this book, and Lulu is a Rhinoceros, for Visibility Days storytimes and displays.

Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

I start #MGMarch with Fly Back Agnes

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Fly Back Agnes, by Elizabeth Atkinson, (March 2020, Carolrhoda), $17.99, ISBN: 978-1-5415-7820-3

Ages 10-13

It’s Middle Grade March (#MGMarch on social media), and I’m working my way through some incredible Middle Grade in my pile. Let’s start with Elizabeth Atkinson’s Fly Back, Agnes; a book I did not want to put down.

Agnes is a 12-year-old living in Vermont with her mother, who Agnes sees as a “bulldozer” that just rolls over everything in her path. Agnes is frustrated by her mother’s pushiness and opinions about Agnes’s clothes and imminent “becoming a woman”; she really isn’t crazy about her mother’s mumbling artist boyfriend, Richard, and Richard’s weird and obnoxious kid, George. She misses her father, who lives in a nearby town, where he’s a cellist and teaches at a university. She misses her sister, Viva, who’s pulled away from their family entirely. She feels betrayed by her best friend, Megan, who’s become enchanted with the new mean girl, Lux. So when her mother announces that they’re moving to Kansas for the summer, for a project Richard’s been hired to do – despite Agnes having made plans to work at an animals shelter – she has had it. It all starts with a white lie, so she can spend the summer with her dad, who’s housesitting for a friend. She’s thrilled to have the summer with her father, but he’s finishing up his dissertation, so he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with her, leaving Agnes to wander the town and decide to take on a persona that isn’t Agnes at all. She becomes Chloe, an actress-dancer 14-year-old who has the life Agnes desperately wants. Even as she makes friends in town – a young woman named Stella, Stella’s grandmother, Birdie, and a cute 15-year-old named Fin – the lies get bigger and deeper. Agnes wants to tell them the truth, especially as each reveals their own secrets to her, but she just can’t seem to find a way out.

Two major themes in Fly Back, Agnes are secrets and identities. Agnes is struggling with her identity because she’s on the cusp of “womanhood” – getting her period – something that, for her, is a sign that her childhood is over. She sees her visit to her father as a chance to escape the life she’s in, and tries a new identity on for size while she’s away. Being the main character, she’s the most fleshed out: biracial, with a part-Korean father and American mother, she has her mother’s freckles and curly red hair and her father’s skin tone. Her friends are ready to take on the tween/teen mantle, consumed with their smartphones and appearances, and it feels like a betrayal to Agnes, especially when she overhears mean girl Lux talking with them behind Agnes’s back at a sleepover. Stella and Fin have their own secrets, but they haven’t created a new persona: their identities are wrapped up in their secrets, and their trust in Agnes makes her feel guilty. Agnes’s parents are less fleshed out but have enough background to give us a pretty good picture of them. I wanted to learn more about Viva, but she and Megan were both there to give Agnes more depth, and ultimately, that was fine with me.

Fly Back, Agnes, has great pacing, good characters, and is a story I can’t wait to booktalk to my middle graders. It’s relatable, with (mostly) likable characters, and an interesting mini-plot with rehabilitating wild birds. It’s a good add to your realistic fiction collections.

Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

March graphic novels look at the power of relationships

Posted on February 4, 2019November 6, 2018 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Breakaways, by Cathy G. Johnson, (March 2018, First Second), $12.99, ISBN: 9781626723573

Ages 8-12

This Bad News Bears of Soccer story stars Faith, a child of color who joins her school team at the urging of Amanda, one of the school’s popular girls. Thinking it’s a great way to make new friends, Faith signs up, only to discover that there are different soccer teams, and she’s been put on the Bloodhounds, which is made of up the lousiest players in the school. They may be horrible at soccer, but the group gradually comes together to form a tight friendship unit, and that’s the heart of the story.

There’s a fantastic diversity among the group. There are queer characters, including one who’s transitioning, and characters of color. The storyline is moved forward by each character’s quest for identity and acceptance within their families and the group, making for some deeply heartfelt moments. It’s a book about friendship, self-awareness, and acceptance, set in a middle school – often a battleground for kids who want to stand out without being “different”.

This one’s a must-add to your shelves. Talk this one up to your Lumberjanes fans.

The Mary Sue has a great write-up and preview of The Breakaways, and you can visit author/illustrator Cathy G. Johnson’s website for more info.

Kiss Number 8, by Colleen AF Venable/Illustrated by Ellen T. Crenshaw, (March 2018, First Second), $17.99, ISBN: 9781596437098

Ages 12+

Mads is a Catholic school teen who whose dad is her best friend. They go to minor league baseball games together, watch TV shows together, and generally just hang out together. It rocks her world when she discovers that her dad is hiding a secret, and it couldn’t have come at a harder time: Mads is also discovering that she may be attracted to her friend, Cat.

Kiss Number 8 looks at a sexual awakening within a close Catholic family. Mads tries out different kisses with different guys, trying to feel something, because her wilder friend, Cat – the archetypal Catholic school bad girl – encourages it, and it’s because what Mads feels like she’s supposed to do. While she torments herself over what she thinks her father’s hiding, she and Cat fall out, and the rumor mill goes wild, leading Mads to admit to her feelings and attractions to herself, and to Cat. Once Mads accepts herself, she has to deal with her father’s secret, his reaction to her emerging identity, and his overall mindset; luckily, she has support from a place she never dreamed of.

I really enjoyed Kiss Number 8. The characters are real, and Mads’ struggle with her own identity and sexuality works seamlessly with the family secret, revealed in all of its emotional pain. Mads has to come to realizations about herself, her relationships, and her own father, in order to move forward, but she’s a smart heroine that navigates these challenges to come out on top. Kiss Number is an exploration of teen sexuality, families, and relationships. A necessary book for your collections.

Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw‘s websites both offer some sneak peeks at Kiss Number 8 and their additional work.

Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Reckless Club “remixes The Breakfast Club for the Instagram generation”

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Reckless Club, by Beth Vrabel, (Oct. 2018, Running Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9780762490400

Ages 9-13

I had to use Kirkus’ line in that opening, because how more perfect can one describe a book? Beth Vrabel, one of my favorite middle grade authors, reaches back into one of the movies that defined my generation and brought it back, with a few nips and tucks, to inspire a new generation. We take one group: a Nobody (Jason), a Drama Queen (Lilith), a Flirt (Wes), an Athlete (Ally, also known as “Sports Barbie”), and a rebel (Rex) all come together at a retirement home one day in the late summer. Each has done something so wrong in their last year of middle school that they’ve got to spend the last Saturday before high school here, helping elderly patients and their principal’s sister, who oversees the home. Each teen is paired with an elder, and their personalities quickly emerge, as does a mystery: is one of the nurse’s stealing from the patients?

The book has wonderful callouts to The Breakfast Club, meaning I’ll get to booktalk this to some of my parents, too. We Gen Xers never get tired of ’80s nostalgia! But the story is so much more than that. Beth Vrabel has the dual gifts of dialogue and character development, giving readers a voraciously readable story that delves into LGBTQ+, self-esteem and acceptance, and race matters.

I love Beth Vrabel’s books. I feel good at the end of a Beth Vrabel story, and I feel like people can and still want to make a difference when I read a Beth Vrabel story. She tells realistic stories about kids we could see in our classrooms, our libraries, and at our dinner tables every day, and provides insights that we may not even realize we’re overlooking. That handsome class president with the dimples may not have it as easy as you think. The drama queen that throws a hissy fit may have hit her last straw with an awful teacher. That star athlete may have something really unhealthy pushing her to excel. It reminds us, as adults, as well as middle graders and tweens, that everyone has something going on under the surface. A final note, a la the Breakfast Club, sums up the group’s experiences of the day, and we can only hope that The Reckless Club has another adventure in store for us soon.

Visit Beth Vrabel’s website for study guides, news about her other books, and info about school visits.

picture books, Preschool Reads

Doesn’t matter what you think you see, Lulu is a Rhinoceros.

Posted on July 7, 2018July 7, 2018 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Lulu is a Rhinoceros, by Jason Flom & Allison Flom/Illustrated by Sophie Corrigan, (June 2018, Wicked Cow Studios), $16.99, ISBN: 9780692070987

Ages 4-7

Lulu may look like an bulldog to you and me, but when she looks in the mirror, she sees a rhinoceros. In her heart, her fluffy, soft fur is really thick skin, and her nubby little tail is actually whiplike. The only thing she needs is a horn: then everyone will know she’s really a rhino! But as she searches for her horn, others laugh at her and cruelly mock her; her Cinderella-like search for the perfect horn takes a few sweet, giggle-worthy turns, especially at the ice cream cart. When Lulu wanders into a rhino enclosure at a zoo, she meets a friend who uses common sense to see her for who she is, and they come together to form a mutually beneficial, wonderful, friendship.

This sweet story is perfect for everyone: in addition to addressing gender identity, Lulu speaks to readers who don’t feel like they quite fit in; readers who don’t want to go with the crowd. The message is strong: be true to yourself. It also extols the virtue of finding – or being – that one friend who can see through the exterior to who you are inside. The softly drawn artwork has muted colors, bringing a sense of calm to the story and allows readers to focus on Lulu’s internal dialogue. The story addresses social issues like introspection, friendship, social issues, tolerance, and yes, gender identity, and I love it. A portion of all the proceeds from sales of Lulu is a Rhinoceros are being donated to the African Wildlife Foundation to help protect Africa’s endangered wildlife and their habitat, so you’re doing two good deeds by buying the book! There’s an interview with authors Jason and Allison Flom (with real-life Lulu!) on the African Wildlife Foundation’s webpage. Pair this one with Bow-Wow Meow, by Blanca Lacasa.