Typography & Review by Adele Lukusa
Image description: "The Lit Club's: August Edition" written on a pink oval with a blue gradient background.*
For this Lit Club, we’ve brought you Part 2 of great summer reads! Ranging from topics like police brutality to superhero origin stories - there’s sure to be one that will interest all kinds of readers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If I Ever Get Out Of Here by Eric Gansworth
Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him -- people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home -- will he still be his friend?
Acclaimed adult author Eric Gansworth makes his YA debut with this wry and powerful novel about friendship, memory, and the joy of rock 'n' roll. - Goodreads
Genre: (Young Adult) Historical Fiction
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. - Goodreads
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways. - Goodreads
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Revolt by Qaisra Shahraz
A brilliantly incisive portrait of small-town life, exploding into a panoramic portrayal of the nature of change, freedom, pride, and prejudice. Evocative, family drama and love story, rich with contemporary issues, humor, tragedy, and conflict. Think Pakistani Jane Austen! - Goodreads
Genre: Fiction
REVIEWS
The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Huang, Sonny Liew & Chu Hing
In Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew’s, The Shadow Hero, takes the unknown origin story of the first Asian-American superhero and spins it anew. As someone who wasn’t familiar with the original storyline, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. But after learning that The Green Turtle’s face wasn’t shown and his background was ambiguous due to issues between the author and his publisher, the importance of this story hit me. Although I’m not Asian-American, I realize the importance and the joy of seeing someone who looks like you be represented, and The Shadow Hero’s Chinese hero, Hank Chu, does just that. Although the story feels pretty typical at certain points, I am a big believer that tropes are bearable when done with diverse casts, and The Shadow Hero is no exception. I would recommend this comic book who loves typical origin superhero stories and Asian-Americans in lead roles.
Adele’s rating: 3.8/5 stars
*The following pictures are book covers.