PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY - Her Fearless Run by Kim Chaffee

Kathrine Switzer''s Historic Boston Marathon
Illustrated by Ellen Rooney

2019, Page Street Kids, Salem, MA

HC $17/99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.57 - 130 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers:  Eggplant

1^st line/s:   ""Pat, pat, pat.  The summer sun beat down on twelve-year-old Kathrine.  She held out her piece of chalk and marked the tree as she ran past again.  Two laps to go."

My comments:  Another picture book biography winner!  As a young woman in 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first female to run the Boston Marathon. Not only is this an inspiring book for girls of today, but eye-opening for adults that it wasn't so long ago that women were being denied such basic opportunities.

Goodreads:  Kathrine Switzer changed the world of running. This narrative biography follows Kathrine from running laps as a girl in her backyard to becoming the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with official race numbers in 1967.

MOVIE - McFarland USA

PG (2:09)

Wide Release 2/20/15

Roadhouse Cinema 3/9/15

RT Critic: 79    Audience: 92

Cag: 5/Loved it

Directed by Niki Caro

Disney Studio

Based on a true story

Kevin Costner, Maria Bello

My comments:  What's not to love about a Kevin Costner movie?  The story, following a group of young men who discover that having a goal and being part of a team is incredibly meaningful, is moving, as is the insight we see into the coach's family and situation he's created - unwittingly - for himself.  And, since it's based on a true story, the way that the director added the "epilogue" - showing AND telling what happened to the seven young men, as they run beside the actors, was totally, wonderfully awesome!  What a great way to end a great movie.

Disney Summary:  Inspired by the 1987 true story, “McFarland, USA” follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. Coach White and the McFarland students have a lot to learn about each other but when White starts to realize the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change. Soon something beyond their physical gifts becomes apparent—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic. With grit and determination, the unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well. Along the way, Coach White realizes that his family finally found a place to call home and both he and his team achieve their own kind of American dream.

13 - Since You've Been Gone - Morgan Matson

Audio read by Suzy Jackson

11 unabridged discs (12.75 hrs.)

2014, Recorded Books

449 pgs.

YA CRF

Finished 2/7/2015

Goodreads rating:  4.17

My rating:   4.5 Totally loved it- didn't want it to end

TPPL

Setting: contemporary coastal Connecticut, the summer before Senior year. 

My comments:  This book was so much fun to listen to!  Suzy Jackson did a terrific job as a reader, and although her voice for Emily was sweet and young, when she became Frank (especially) she added just enough male inflection to make it sound masculine and believable.  The story itself was great, watching a timid girl come into her own.  Such a nice change from the grizzlier YAs I've read recently.  And this book was totally and wonderfully real.  I think I was a lot like Emily when I was 17.....  So why not a five?  The last few chapters dragged a bit, at least compared to the rest of the book.

Goodreads book summary:  The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell. 
          But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.
          Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough.
          Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not?
          Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?
          Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?
          Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

6. None of the Above - I. W. Gregorio

I read an ARC of this
2015 (due out in April) Balzer + Bray/ Harper Collins

328 pgs.

YA CRF

Finished 1/15/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.31

My rating:   4.5/ Super Excellent book

Acquired from my YALSA group

Setting:  contemporary Utica, NY

1st sentence/s:  "Dawn is my favorite time of day.  There's something sacred about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping, when the sky is just turning toward the light, and you can still have the sounds of night before the engines and conversations of the day drown them."

My comments:  4.5 This was an excellent, informative read.  I love when you find a book that teaches AND has a good story.  Usually it's historical fiction, but this one covered a lot of information about intersex/AIS/hermaphrodite women.  There were a few things that were sort of just "thrown in," a little off-putting because I felt it might have been missing other things too (a quick mention about an Adam's apple, as one example, sort of out-of-the-blue), but overall I ingested it in two sittings. (One comment about the cover:  yuck!)

Goodreads book summary:  A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she's intersex . . . and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.
          What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
           When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.
           But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned--something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."
           Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?