INK Sisters Write

Dear Alison, Last night, I stayed up late. I was three quarters of the way through Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina, and I wasn’t about to put it down. Sleep could wait. Sleep was for the weak. Nora wasn’t weak. Nora wouldn’t sleep. She would push through blurry eyed and gritted teeth until the end. Around 2 am, I set Burn Baby Burn on the nightstand and turned off the light with full intentions of waiting until the morning to write my review, but Nora kept me awake. She refused to let me sleep until I poured my emotions onto the page (Or dictated into my phone.) Imagine Burn Baby Burn on nightstand in the pitch dark.  Nora's strength blew me away. I’ve always thought strong female protagonists are females who fight, who voice their opinions loudly, who don’t take one iota of crap from anyone. Women like Stiller, Nora’s protest loving neighbor. But Nora’s different. She doesn't fight. She doesn't confront. She possesses a quiet strength that help...

Dear Kim, Here comes a big one. The book that I've been talking and talking about finally lands on our blog today. H is for Ashley Hope Perez and her historical tragedy, Out of Darkness . H is for Ashley Hope Perez Cover missing Printz Honor seal. Say what you want about prologues, Kim, but reading the prologue to Hope Perez's award-winning historical fiction is a litmus test to see if you can emotionally handle this haunting novel. If you can pull through the prologue without your heart crumbling to nothing, you might be strong enough to continue reading.  "Within the great circle," she writes, "men crawl over the crumpled form of the collapsed school. They cart away rubble and search for survivors. For their children. Mostly, though, they find bodies." The prologue continues, describing the hours and days just after the explosion. The prologue ends with, "More than grief, more than anger, there is a need. Someone to blame. Someone to make ...