Book Review:   Bibliography- Hicks, F. E. (2015). Friends with boys . POPCOM Publishers. ISBN 3842025602   Plot Summary- Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and rough housing with her older brothers, it's time for Maggie to face the outside world, all on her own. But that means facing high school first. And it also means solving the mystery of the melancholy ghost who has silently followed Maggie throughout her entire life. Maybe it even means making a new friend, one who isn't one of her brothers.   Critical Analysis- This story included ghosts, pirates, homeschooling kids, and zombie theatre to name a few! I specifically enjoyed seeing the brothers with their play-fights, funny banter, and their realistic relationships between them. I love comic books that are only black, white, and grey. The panels convey the emotions and feelings of the characters perfectly. I think...

  Book Review:   Bibliography- Jensen, K. (2018). Don't call me crazy: 33 voices start the conversation about mental health .                Algonquin Young Readers Publishers.  ISBN 9781616207816   Plot Summary- To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people. In  (Don’t) Call Me Crazy , thirty-three actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics: their personal experiences with mental illness, how we do and don’t talk about mental health, help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently, and what, exactly, might make someone crazy. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone...

  Book Review-   Bibliography- Shakur, T. (1999). The rose that grew from concrete . MTV Books. ISBN 0671028448   Plot Summary- This collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions. Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen years old, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy and his ultimate message of hope.   Critical Analysis- Selections in this book are reproduced from the originals in Shakur's handwriting, personalized by distinctive spelling and use of ideographs, complete with scratch outs and corrections. Some poems are also accompanied by his drawings. There are a few black-and-white photographs also. The poems are passionate, sometimes angry, and often compelling. What makes this book of poetry unique is that the preface is written by Tupac Shakur's mother, the foreword was written by Nikki Giovanni, a famous poet and activist. The introdu...