Cesaria Feels the Beat by Denise Rosario Adusei

Cesaria Feels the Beat - 40 pages

Denise Rosario Adusei, Priscila Soares (Illustrator)

Summary (From Goodreads)

Cesaria is going to perform for the seaside Carnival. She skips past the beach barefoot, dressed in her favorite peacock leotard.

But when her dance director tells her she must put on her shoes to go on stage, Cesaria signs, “Peacocks don’t wear shoes!”

You see, Cesaria hears the music through the soles of her feet, but no one seems to understand…

…That is, until all the dancers take off their shoes, and learn to feel the music, just like Cesaria.

Review

A nice story about experiencing the world through another point of view.  The author includes a story in the back about her deaf cousin that inspired her to write this book.  

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

451 pages

⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

The Seven Year Slip

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston | 336 pages | 2023

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again. Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed. After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

The Scooter Twins by Dorothy Ellen Palmer

The Scooter Twins - 32 pages

Dorothy Ellen Palmer, Maria Sweeney (Illustrator)

Summary (From Goodreads)

Melanie and Melvin may be twins, but they couldn’t be more different. Melanie is LOUD and Melvin is quiet. Melvin likes frogs and Melanie loves MOTORCYCLES! When the twins learn that they will get their very own mobility scooters, Melanie is excited to race to school, but Melvin is worried he’ll fall ― and that people will stare. And there’s a Grandma can’t afford the scooters without selling one of Mom’s treasured paintings, one of the only things the twins have left to remember their parents. In the process of getting their scooters, Melanie and Melvin have to navigate challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily rudeness from a store clerk and products that aren’t made with kids in mind. But in the end, Melanie and Melvin choose scooters that are just right for them and make moving through their neighborhood a new adventure. 

Review

This one was as informative as it was bittersweet.  To my knowledge, the author is herself a mobility scooter user.  

Wade Wilson: Deadpool #5-6 by Benjamin Percy

 Wade Wilson: Deadpool #5-6 by Benjamin Percy-32 pages each, 64 total

⭐⭐⭐⭐

STARING DEATH IN THE FACE! HAMMERHEAD has DEADPOOL'S book of omens. But with BLIND AL in the crosshairs, will WADE sacrifice his life for hers? The secret from issue #1 revealed!

BADPOOLS! Who's that knockin' at the door? Sounds like Wade. SMELLS like Wade. But it's not Wade...OR IS IT?! The BADPOOLS enter the scene, and DEADPOOL's life will never be the same!

Thoughts: I continue to like reading through this series. I am all caught up so far. Deadpool is as irreverent as ever! Blind Al helps Deadpool survive Hammerhead and then a "Badpool" shows up at their door to confront Deadpool. It turns out all those limbs and body parts Deadpool has lost (and then regenerated new ones) have become sentient and are after him. Will he survive? I'll have to continue reading the following issue(s) to find out.

Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei

Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei

Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! #1, 200 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐.25/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Nakamura has fallen in love-at-first-sight with one of his classmates, Hirose -- but there's a problem: they haven't actually met yet...and Nakamura is a total klutz who might bungle things before they even begin!

Queen of the World! (Babymouse #1) by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

Queen of the World! (Babymouse #1) by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

Babymouse #1, 96 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Meet Babymouse--the spunky mouse beloved by young readers for more than a decade! Babymouse wants an invite to the hottest slumber party in town. But will she forget all about her plans with her best friend?

It's the same thing every day for Babymouse. Where is the glamour? The excitement? The fame? ? Nothing ever changes, until...Babymouse hears about Felicia Furrypaws's exclusive slumber party. Will Babymouse get invited? Will her best friend, Wilson, forgive her if she misses their monster movie marathon?