Book Review - I Love You So Mochi

📖Recommend for Grades 8 and up📖

I Love You So Mochi

by Sarah Kuhn

After getting into a fight with her parents about dropping her advanced fine arts class, inspiring fashion designer Kimi Nakamura jumps at the invitation to visit her estranged grandparents in Kyoto. Her visit gets off to not the best start as meeting her grandparents for the first time is a bit awkward. Luckily, when it comes to having a tour guide around Kyoto, Kimi meets Akira, a cute guy who assists his uncle with his mochi business. Now Kimi is spending her time getting to know her grandparents and exploring her feelings for Akira, all while learning about her Japanese culture.

An adorable, sweet, and fun love story that you’ll be wishing you had some mochi to enjoy while reading. The book explores the relationship between Kimi and Akira, Kimi, and her family (both with her grandparents and her mother back home) and Kimi’s growth in Japan in a way that works well together. The story is also light despite the family drama. It helps that all the characters are very much likable. Some readers may be wishing they had Kimi’s grandparents as grandparents too.

Library Catalog - E-book - Downloadable Audio

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Weekly Wednesday Quote

Book Review - Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

📖Recommend for Grades 9 and up📖

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

After her school presentation goes horribly wrong, Alaine is suspended from school. Her parents decide to send her to Haiti, where her mom has been living since her on-air explosion. While in Haiti, Alaine is to spend her time interning at her aunt's non-profit and learning about the local culture and her family's heritage. A heritage that includes a curse that Alaine feels explains what is happening to her mother.

The story is told in multiple formats, including e-mails, postcards, texts, and diary entries, which excellently presents the story. Alaine is a smart and witty teen, who readers will come to love if they don't do so from the beginning. While Alaine and her family are fictional, readers will get an intriguing look into Haiti and its culture.

Library Catalog - E-book - Downloadable Audio

E-books - Books to Make You LOL

• My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

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• Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

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• Clean Getaway by Nic Stone (Tween Friendly)

Weekly Wednesday Quote

Book Review - The War Outside

📖Recommend for Grades 9 and up📖

The War Outside

by Monica Hesse

It’s 1944, and Japanese-American Haruko, her sister, and their mother are voluntarily heading to Crystal City to be reunited with their father/husband. Crystal City is unique as this WWII internment camp is for both Japanese and German families. German-American Margot is attending the federal school at the camp because the German school doesn’t have certified teachers, and it’s there she and Haruko meet. The pair forms an unlikely friendship, but complications at the camp make things even more complicated than just being different.

This book is an intriguing story of family, friendship, and betrayal that will have readers wondering what happens next. While Haruko and Margot’s stories are fictional, Crystal City was a real place, and some events did happen. Readers will get an eye-opening look at life during WWII for Japanese-American and German-Americans through this great fictional lens. Haruko and Margot are both intriguing characters, as is their individual and combined stories. 

Library Catalog - E-book - Downloadable Audio

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