Staff Picks: Alison McKeever

After spending years with children and teens in the library, CALS staffer Alison now finds herself drooling over books to order in Collection Development. Here are two of her favorites.

We are Okay by Nina LaCour
A beautiful and subtle novel about grief and relationships. It takes place over a few days at the beginning of winter break, when a quiet, grief-stricken Marin is forced to finally put words to events that happened the previous summer, and figure out her own relationship to grief and to her best friend Mabel. It’s a quiet, small novel that packs an emotional punch. It will leave you slightly raw, but much more empathetic to the quiet loneliness we all feel. Plus, it’s short.

 

 

 

Sweety by Andrea Zuill (Picture book)
Never before have I felt more seen by a children’s book. Sweety is an awkward naked mole rat who loves identifying fungi and doesn’t quite fit in, but she doesn’t let that stop her. A hilarious take on finding your fellow square pegs. It’s bound to give readers, adult and child alike, a chuckle. It makes me wonder if I could pull off interpretive dance book reports…

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