FYI, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street is on sale

[conuly]

It's a decent "family story". A little overly sweet, and I have some quibbles about the setting, mostly relating to a. the high school admissions process in NYC and b. why non-white characters in diverse books aren't themselves given access to diverse books to read (honestly, I could write a whole post on that topic alone) but if you and/or your kid happen to enjoy family stories, this makes a fine addition to your kindle. Good for read-alouds.

Comments

[wendelah1]

I have put it on my wishlist.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

(pretend one of the X-files to the tune of Christmas music parodies was hum-quoted)

It's getting to look like Winter Holidays by your icon. smish.

OnTopic portion: Realism? for query 2. I when writing fan fiction will slap "the world as it should, could be" button like the Jeopardy buzzer rather than this or its ilk.

[boxofdelights]

I really loved Ban This Book by Alan Gratz, but I couldn't understand why all the books his modern-day eleven-year-old hero loved were books from my childhood!

[conuly]

A significant portion of the time, the books that authors write in for bookish kids to read are not just from our/their childhood, but our parents' and even grandparents' time! Drives me batty! Just, like, go to your local library and copy down some modern titles.

(Of course, parents/teachers/librarians repeat the same error when making suggested booklists.)

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

He doesn't know to use/his library doesn't have the/a browser the shelf of the computer catalog.