Monday: The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd
Tuesday: Bats: Learning to Fly (Science Comics) by Falynn Koch
Wednesday: Bette Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz
Thursday: Pele: The King of Soccer by Eddy Simon and Vincent Brascaglia
Friday: Life on Surtsey by Loree Griffin Burns
I didn’t get to meet Kelly Loy Gilbert in 2016 when my Morris Committee selected her debut novel, Conviction, as a William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist. She was pregnant at the time and was unable to travel.I was thrilled to see she had a second novel coming out this year.
Picture Us In the Light was published April 10th.
Publisher’s Summary: Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined. Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family’s blessing to pursue the career he’s always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry and Danny’s lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can’t stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan. When Danny digs deeper into his parents’ past, he uncovers a secret that disturbs the foundations of his family history and the carefully constructed façade his parents have maintained begins to crumble. With everything he loves in danger of being stripped away, Danny must face the ghosts of the past in order to build a future that belongs to him.
Her website says that Kelly “believes deeply in the power of stories to illuminate a shared humanity and give voice to complex, broken people. “ Conviction did so. I think this one does so even more so.
Just as in Conviction, things start out slowly. But don’t give up. Also, there are some flashbacks at the beginning and it is important that you pay attention because once everything comes together, you are going to realize the clues she dropped. There are a lot of issues addressed in the book – suicide, illegal immigration, being the child of immigrants – but it doesn’t feel like an issue book because you are so involved in Danny’s story.
booksandbassets 