The Seventh Raven

The Seventh Raven
by David Elliott (Author) and Rovina Cai (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: In this retelling of the Grimms’ lesser-known “The Seven Ravens,” after Robyn and his brothers are turned into ravens through the work of an unlucky curse, a sister is their only hope to become human again. Though she’s never met her brothers, April will stop at nothing to restore their humanity. But what about Robyn, who always felt a greater affinity to the air than to the earth-bound lives of his family?

Snippet:
And these are the sons
Of good Jack and good Jane
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn
And this is his story

Hear the author talk about the book and read an excerpt.


A 2021 Cybils Poetry nominee

Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

When We Make It

When We Make It
by Elisabet Velasquez (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican eighth grader who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has been denied.

Snippet:
BUSHWICK LIBRARY

Mami has started dropping Estrella & me off at the library
every Saturday.

If there wasn’t a time limit on how long you can neglect
your kids before it becomes abandon,

maaaaan, Mami would leave us there ’til Sunday.

The library gives Mami a vacation from us.
For one day she gets to live inside of a world

where she doesn’t have to be someone’s mother.
A miracle even Jesus would be proud of.

& maybe that makes her sound like a bad mom–
but I love Mami for this ’cause for one day

we get to live inside of a book
and be somebody else too.


A 2021 Cybils Poetry nominee

Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.