{"id":1270,"date":"2018-12-31T16:30:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:30:30","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1270","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Rose Brock <\/span>is a twenty-year veteran professor who has dedicated her career to turning teens into book lovers. Building relationships with readers through books is her superpower. In addition to her career as a librarian and educator, Dr. Brock is also very involved in helping to organize the North Texas Teen Book Festival, a one-day event, which hosts sixty authors and has an impressive annual attendance of over 3,500 teens and tweens. She also serves as a team leader of the International Literacy Association’s Young Adults’ Choices project, which empowers teens to read and select the best books of the year. Dr. Brock was named by the Texas Library Association as the recipient of the Siddie Joe Johnson Award, an award given by the Children’s Round Table to a librarian who demonstrates outstanding library service to children. Follow her on Twitter @reallyrosebrock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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ESSAYS<\/p>\n

Rose Brock,<\/span> editor<\/p>\n

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Philomel Books<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1-5247-4167-9 (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 304 pgs., $18.99<\/p>\n

February 27, 2018<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know a person\u2019s story is inevitably to understand their humanity and feel a loving kinship with them,<\/span> no matter how different the two of you may seem at first. This \u2026 is what gives me hope.\u201d\u2014David Levithan,<\/span> \u201cWe\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration<\/span> is a new collection of essays edited by Dr. Rose Brock,<\/span> a Texas librarian and educator, cofounder of the phenomenally successful North Texas Teen Book Festival and recipient of the Siddie Joe Johnson Award, bestowed by the Texas Library Association upon a librarian who \u201cdemonstrates outstanding library service to children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock chose tales of \u201cresilience, resistance, hardship, loss, love, tenacity, and acceptance\u201d from some of her favorite Young Adult authors because, as Mister Rogers famously advised, \u201cduring a crisis, it\u2019s vital to look for the helpers.\u201d Brock considers these authors and their stories to be helpers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, hope is asking for help because you need someone else\u2019s hope to light the way.\u201d \u2014Libba Bray,<\/span> \u201cBefore and After\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some very big names here: Jason Reynolds,<\/span> Angie Thomas,<\/span> Nicola Yoon;<\/span> authors with Texas ties include Libba Bray,<\/span> Marie Lu,<\/span> Kate Hart,<\/span> and Julie Murphy.<\/span> Each author has donated 100 percent of their fees to charity, matched by Penguin Random House.<\/p>\n

Some of these essays made me smile, some made me laugh aloud, others touched me deeply; still others left me teary, and they all offered perspective. Hope Nation\u2019s contributors are smart, generous, passionate, compassionate people; they come from many races, ethnicities, genders, religions, and persuasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope lies in young Book People \u2026 our brightest beacons of empathy. It takes great empathy to be so interested in the lives of other people that you don\u2019t even demand that they really exist.\u201d \u2014Jeff Zentner<\/span>, \u201cNobody Remembers the Names of People Who Build Walls\u201d<\/p>\n

These pieces explore the nature of hope and the many forms it can assume [new life, a song, humor \u2014see Kate Hart\u2019s \u201cWings and Teeth\u201d for her internal debate with her Shoulder Cynic, and I. W. Gregorio\u2019s<\/span> \u201corigin story of a female urologist\u201d \u2014 travel, bakeries], even in the face of abuse, discrimination, disease or injury, poverty, and addiction. Many of these stories deal with immigration, a particularly timely topic. Some essays are more literal than others, and Emily Dickinson\u2019s<\/span> \u201chope is the thing with feathers\u201d gets a workout.<\/p>\n

Very occasionally a pedantic tone emerges, more often the tone is gentle exhortation, even if sometimes harrowing and profoundly personal (see \u201cIn the Past\u201d by Jenny Torres Sanchez<\/span>). Some take on the era of Trump head-on, such as Aisha Saeed\u2019s<\/span> \u201cThe Only One I Can Apologize For.\u201d Others are subtle, like Alex London\u2019s<\/span> \u201cDifferent Dances,\u201d but the personal is always political.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to search for tiny hopes until tiny hopes make bigger hopes.\u201d \u2014Julie Murphy, <\/span>\u201cHoping for Home\u201d<\/p>\n

Nic Stone\u2019s<\/span> \u201cAlways\u201d finds commonalities. Ally Carter\u2019s <\/span>\u201cThe Two Types of Secrets\u201d recommends finding examples and mentors, in which the care and feeding of dreams is like yeast\u2014a living thing which requires care. Jason Reynolds<\/span> and Brendan Kiely<\/span> discuss the kids they met and things they learned on the tour for All American Boys,<\/span> such as easy doesn\u2019t equal happiness, and difficult doesn\u2019t equal sadness. And if all else fails, break out the Shel Silverstein.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHope is a decision.\u201d \u2014Rose Brock<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}