Salt the Water

Iloh, Candice. Salt the Water. 2023. 288p. ISBN 9780593529317.

Cerulean is a free spirit caught in a higher schooler body. they've lived their whole live encouraged and supported to be themselves by two amazing parents and a great support network. Unfortunately, high school is all about conforming and following rules and regulations, even if these rules don't make any sense at all. With six months to go before graduation, Cerulean is counting the days before they get to leave their public school and fulfill their desire of living off the grid with friends, away from the capitalist system that has undermined their lives and that of their community. 

Cerulean is particularly resentful of her English teacher, who seems to have it out for them, calling them the wrong name and making insinuating remarks that they are not as smart as they think they are. During a high stake test, despite being warned not to leave, Cerulean finds themself suffering a bathroom emergency, so they sneak out of the room and return a few minutes later. Unfortunately, their teacher noticed their absence, and Cerulean's test is shredded and thrown in the trash. This send Cerulean over the edge, and they have a very robust verbal exchange with the teacher that earns them an out of school suspension for three weeks.

Not wanting to deal with the consequences, Cerulean stops attending school. Why put off their dream when they could start it now? What's the point of school anyway? But the money Cerulean had saved for their future is suddenly needed when their father, the rock of the family, suffers a catastrophic injury in his restaurant, with massive burns on his body, and equally massive medical bills. Cerulean's funds are now needed to keep the family afloat. With all of these obstacles in their way, can Cerulean still pursue the future they have been dreaming of?

A novel in verse, Salt the Water explores nonbinary representation of African-Americans and the measures that must sometimes be taken to prevent others from silencing one's voice. Containing a severe critique of a school system unable or unwilling to accommodate the realities lived by their students, the book offers a gritty portrayal of life in an urban school and what it means to not belong.

Once in a Blue Moon

Flake, Sharon G. Once in a Blue Moon. 2023. 336p. ISBN 9780593480984.

James Henry was always one of the bravest kids around, at least that is what his twin sister Hattie used to say. But the day he and his mother went searching for their dog by the lighthouse at night is a day of tragedy, and James Henry stopped being brave. Interested by space, and fascinating by the moon and by Buck Rogers, James Henry can't go to school, so every day he watches his sister leave, and eagerly waits for her to return home so they can play together. Scared by the outside, James Henry rarely ventures out of his house, and every time he does he anxiously looks around, hoping to avoid the Baker boys, the local bullies. With his father in Detroit working hard to help his mother heal in the hospital following the tragedy, James Henry and Hattie live with Gran in segregated North Carolina of 1939.

When Hattie returns home one day with Lottie Jean, a new friend she made at school, James Henry realizes that their uncomplicated lives will never be the same. Lottie tries hard to connect with James Henry, but he wants nothing to do with her. All he wants is to go back to his spaceship and his sister. Hattie knows that things must change, however, for Hattie has been offered the opportunity to go to school in Philadelphia, which would leave James Henry alone at home. Working with Lottie Jean, Hattie eventually convinces James Henry that he must leave his home on the blue moon and return to the lighthouse to confront his fear and the tragedy that took place there when his mother got hurt. Along the way, James Henry learns how to see the world again, and grows out of his shell.

Told in verses, James Henry's story is slow moving at first, but it builds a powerful picture of a boy who is grieving for a life that no longer exists, and who must learn to deal with the world as it is, not as it could be. Inspired by the author's father and his life as an African-American child in North Carolina in the 1930s, this powerful story will stay with the reader long after they put down the book.