If you are reading this and don't know me personally, I was a high school librarian for many years. I retired from education in 2020 after 29 years of working in the school system. I was a librarian for 23 of those 29 years. I started in the elementary library and ended up in the high school library. I grew to love young adult literature. Now that I am retired, I miss having access to the YA library. Now, I work at our public library part time and I do acquisitions for adult books and materials and young adult books and materials, so I can keep up with the new titles. For the month of September I decided to concentrate on some of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award nominees. These are YA books that are voted on by actual students who read the books. I am working with our public library to promote the KY Bluegrass Awards this year. You will be surprised how many young adult novels appeal to adults. I had a few good YA books when I was young, but many of the books I read as a YA were not as relatable as the YA books are today. So, let's get to the books.
Let's start with What I Carry by Jennifer Longo which is one of the KBA nominees. There are always those books that really stand out or mean something to you. This book was one of those. Muir never knew who her parents were. She is growing up in the foster care system. This book is about her last year in the system before she ages out. She is worried about what is going to happen to her since she never got adopted. She spends her senior year of high school on an island off of Seattle and stays with Francis. Francis has had many foster children and she decides that Muir will be the last one before she retires. How their relationship develops is just heart warming. Muir also makes new friends and worries about what she wants to do after graduation. This is not your typical story of a girl in foster care that gets molested, abused, etc. It is a great story about how a girl has overcome not having a permanent family for 18 years. The relationships she develops and the character of this girl is so heart warming. It is a book that restores your faith in our youth. I gave it five stars and very few books warrant five stars from me.
Another book that is on the nominee master list for the Kentucky Bluegrass Awards for grades 9-12 is Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson. This is the story of a high school girl who has a dream of being a singer and meets a popular music star that she develops a crush on. However, the relationship turns abusive and she is caught up in a world of fame, but it comes at a cost. This story is well told and it allows you to see how easy it is for young people to get swept away into a world that is not what it seems.
Kiss Me in New York by Catherine Rider was a young adult book that I read as an ebook. This story is about a British young lady who was in New York as a foreign exchange student at a high school. She is at the air port flying home for the Christmas holidays and her flight is delayed due to weather. While in the airport, she meets a guy who is dumped by his long distance girl friend. He came to the air port to surprise her as she came home for the holidays, but she breaks it off with him and is meeting someone else at the airport. Charlotte has just been dumped herself, so she knows what Charlie is going through. Since her flight is delayed until the next day, they decide to explore the city as they work through the steps of a book, How to Get Over a Break Up. This is a cute story about finding someone who gets you at unexpected times.
I was able to find, through interlibrary loan, a book I read when I was in sixth or seventh grade. It was the typical young adult book of the times in my library at Irvington Elementary. I could not believe I was able to find it. Jenny Kimura by Betty Cavanna was about a young girl whose mother is Japanese and her father is American. She lives in Japan, but is going to visit the grandmother she has never met before in the United States for the summer during her sophomore year. This book was written in the sixties and it was very interesting how it dealt with prejudice against the Japanese. It was interesting to see the differences in the cultures as far as what Jenny would be allowed to do with kids her own age, especially a boy, without adult supervision in the U. S. vs. Japan. It was just kind of fun to read something that I hadn't read in over 40 years.
image from Amazon.com
I did read two other books during September that were not young adult novels. One of my audio books was The Restaurant by Pamela M. Kelley. Three sisters inherit a Nantucket restaurant from their grandmother with the stipulation that they each work at the restaurant at least one year before they decide what to do with it. Each sister has their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working at a restaurant, plus they have their own issues going on in their lives. They want to make it work so that they can decide what to do with the restaurant. Do they really want to sell it, or could they make a go at owning it? It was a cute read with a hint of romance.
image from barnesandnoble.com
The last book I wish to share is Mrs. March by Virginia Feito. I took this book to read on the ship when we took our retirement cruise. I read that it was an interesting read on social media so I thought I would give it a try. Mrs. March is the wife of an author, George March. Everyone is talking about her husband's latest novel. Someone commented that the main character, a woman of questionable character, must be based off of Mrs. March. Thus begins the spiral that causes Mrs. March to try to figure out if George modeled the main character after her. Which leads to her thinking her husband is responsible for a murder. How does she go down this rabbit hole? Mrs. March definitely has some anxiety issues. I could see this book being a Hitchcock movie. This is a very interesting story with a twist.
My husband and I decided to take a cruise for our retirement when we retired last year. However, when Covid hit, we had to post pone our trip. Mid September we drove down to Port Canaveral and got on the Allure of the Seas with Royal Caribbean and experienced our first cruise. It was wonderful!! We had 7 days to explore the boat and the ports we stopped at along the way. Since we had to postpone our cruise, the travel agent at Priceline helped us upgrade to a room with a balcony at no extra cost. I highly recommend the room with a balcony. The view is breath taking.
The ship was beautiful and the crew was so very friendly and helpful. I have never been waited on so much. They take very good care of everyone on the boat. My goal was to see the deep blue water and how clear it is. Our first port was Cozumel. We did not do an excursion, we just took a cab to a local resort and enjoyed the beach, pool and some wonderful authentic Mexican food. There was hardly anyone there. It was almost like we had the resort to ourselves.
Our next port was Costa Maya, Mexico. At this port we took an excursion to the Mayan ruins. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about the ruins. He made the tour very educational and fun.
The days at sea were amazing as well. The ship's capacity is about 6,000 and we only had 2,200 passengers. So, it was not crowded, the restaurants were readily available, as well as the shows. It was a great time to explore the boat and to check out the pools and hot tubs. There were so many on board, it was like we had our own hot tub at times. How cool is that. The shows were wonderful and the music and musicians on board were top notch. It was nice to just sit, enjoy a drink and listen to a quintet or piano or even jazz. There were many choices for all kinds of taste onboard.
When we got off the boat in the Bahamas, we were not able to get off of the van and explore during the excursion much due to Covid. It was very limited to where we could explore. This was probably the most disappointing part of the trip, but it was still neat to see the sights, even from a van.
(Sidney Poitier bridge)
(of course the library)
(hand rolled cigars)
(Margaritaville)
(Atlantis)
Our last port was Coco Cay, which is owned by Royal Caribbean. It is a private island that has lots of beaches and water rides, a zip line, and all kinds of fun slides and activities for kids. Our favorite part was the huge pool that was mostly for adults that had a swim up bar. It was no deeper than 4 1/2 feet and it was very relaxing. There were also beaches with clear water and sand that was amazing! I just can't get over how blue the water is and so clean.
A cruise was the perfect way to celebrate our retirement. We both enjoyed the experience and I think I would do it again. On the boat we met people who were regular cruisers. They cruise yearly, monthly, and some even cruise two or three weeks at a time on the same boat. I don't think I want to be a monthly cruiser, but I could definitely do it at least once a year or so. The warm water and sunshine were just what I needed leading into this dark, cooler, fall weather when we returned to Kentucky. I miss the beach already.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Make sure you come back for my review of October reads.
(Sidney Poitier bridge)
(Margaritaville)
(Atlantis)
