LOOK BOTH WAYS by Jason Reynolds and STRONG AS SANDOW by Don Tate

Greetings to all!   .....Our October Zoom meeting provided a ton of positive reactions to both of our books. We started with our novel, Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds. Although one reader said that the first chapter completely turned her off due to the graphic discussion of bodily functions (think: nose), the rest of us -- though agreeing that this chapter was the weakest of the ten chapters -- each depicting particular middle-schoolers walking home on a certain street -- kept reading and finished the book. We thought that the first chapter, although off-putting to adults would immediately pull young readers in. We ultimately felt that this book was a masterpiece of plotting, character, and brilliantly fresh writing. We thought it was very real, respectful of the youngsters it depicted, a great examination of joy and kindness and love -- along with some realistic 'kid meanness' -- and that its intended audience of young readers would 'eat it up'. We loved how each chapter/street was a short story within itself, and presented a new world to explore, ending with the last chapter/street in which the relationship of all the characters became evident as well as other things we didn't understand earlier. We also commended the book designer, who used a small line-drawing sketch to introduce each chapter/street and how -- visually -- these drawings descended downward, so that at Chapter 10 the drawing was at the bottom of the page. We hoped that our own 'reluctant reader' would give this book another try.

We had equally positive things to say about our picture book biography, Strong as Sandow by Don Tate. All of us were happy to learn about Eugen Sandow, a body builder in the middle/late 1800s that none of us had ever heard of, and we felt the first page really made one want to read further and the vivid illustrations that bounced off the page were also enticing. We liked the layout of the book where each boxed chapter heading included the location and date where the depicted events occurred. We liked how the story flowed as it told the story of Friedrich Wilhelm Muller, a weak, sickly 10-year-old boy who -- against his parents' wishes -- worked hard at physical exercise to become --at the age of 20 --Eugen Sandow: Strongman. We thought this story was a good page-turner and could be inspirational for young readers as it described the pursuing of a dream and never giving up. We also liked the Back Matter a lot, where: 1) the Afterword elaborated on Sandow's life, where he prescribed physical fitness progams in schools and healthy diets for all; 2) simple exercises anyone could try at home were presented; 3) the Author's Note where Tate described his own experience with bodybuilding; 4) an excellent and extensive bibliography; and 5) actual citations for quotes used in the text. (This is often missing in picture biographies.) ...So great to have two books with (almost) total pluses!