Perks and Recs

 Don't Call Me Kit Kat is a fairly honest story of a middle school girl who gets caught up in ED behaviors. TW: ED, self-harm, suicide, body checking. I wasn't sure about this book when I started it, but I'm so glad I continued with it. Farnham's voice is a lot like that of one of my favorite authors - Kate Brian. The story had all the drama of middle school tied with the realities that so many young people face of weight and body-checking. Katie is your typical middle school girl - wants to be part of the popular crowd, compares herself to her big sister, thinks she should look differently than she does. Until one day she discovers one of the popular girls making herself sick in the school bathroom and it starts her on a spiral of her own. My only concerns of young people reading this book are that some scenes are almost a how-to on eating disorders, but if done as a mother/aunt and daughter/niece buddy read I think it could shed a lot of light on a harmful situation.

 March was a struggle, but I finished 19 books! After Zero by Christina Collins This book was a sad tale of a girl with selective mutism who keeps a tally of the words she says each day and feels like a failure if that number is too low. I found the main character Elise to be so relatable. This would be a great book for 5th graders or middle schoolers trying to navigate the social chaos of being young. 8/10 Ash Princess by Lara Sebastian OMG was this book amazing! It's your typical YA fantasy dystopia but with such a compelling storyline. I'm obsessed. 10/10 Cinderella (as if you didn't already know the story) by Barbara Ensor I have a rainbow book shelf in my personal library that was lacking some orange so I told my 13 year old nice to "find me an aesthetic orange book" at HPB. This is what she came back with and I am so happy with it. It's a cute retelling of Cinderella told mostly through diary entries. Would be great for early readers or anyone who loves