Nina LaCour

Nine-year-old Ella lives with her moms, Abby and Livy, in an apartment on Poppy Hill in San Francisco. Ella knows everything about the building and its tenants (except for the mysterious upstairs neighbors, the Robinsons) and is excited to show newcomers Leo and Cleo around, but they rebuff her - at first. Soon, though, they realize they need Ella's help, and she gives them a tour (and explains the quirks of their oven and light switch). Wise, wry Ella is a delight, and she does eventually get invited up to the Robinsons' apartment to help them with a secret mission.

Utterly charming. I'd love a sequel! A great length to read aloud, too, like Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo.

See also: Madame Badobedah by Sophie Dahl

"Time. It was such a simple word, but it swirled through Ella's mind. The way it made people hurry or wait. How small it could be, like sand falling in an hourglass. How vast it could be, like all the seconds of her life that led up to this one." (121)… (mer)

A book about finding your path and your person, even if those things are never settled and take a long time to feel right, reading it felt like being promised a place in the future where I was happy. In this book love can be flawed and cyclical and overwhelmed by the rest of life, but still sacred. It isn’t foolish to choose love, but nothing is promised.

Essentially queer. Characters themselves provide multiple perspectives on their own identities, but the structure and form are themselves queer and resilient.

The first chapter felt so easy and light, then it got so dark and sad so fast that it was almost nauseating. The change was hard to navigate, but the book itself resisted the tone (much in the way that humans find resilience after trauma). It carries you to beautiful places, then drops you harshly, but always with the promise that the world itself brings you good things and good people—that the fullness of experience is out there and will wait for you, but will rush in the moment you let it.

I want to read it again and again, just to return to a world where time passes like a force of its own (and I can skim through it fast enough to see how it moves among these characters I love so much.)… (mer)