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Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South, Part Three by Gene Luen Yang
Books of a Feather by Kate Carlisle
Caleb and Kit by Beth Vrabel
CatStronauts: Robot Rescue by Drew Brockington
Country Matters by Michael Korda
The Dashwood Sisters Tell All by Beth Pattillo
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing by Erika Lopez
The Football Girl by Thatcher Heldring
Froodle by Antoinette Portis
Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lynn Childs
House Held Up by Trees by Ted Kooser and Jon Klassen
Inside Hudson Pickle by Yolanda Ridge
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Love Lies Bleeding by Susan Wittig Albert
Love, Penelope by Joanne Rocklin
Melena's Jubilee by Zetta Elliott and Aaron Boyd
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
The Once Upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Hennessy and Peter Joyce
Poisoned Pages by Lorna Barrett
Questions Asked by Jostein Gaarder
The Sea Lady by Margaret Drabble
Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil, Vol. 1 by Jeff Lemire
Spy on History: Victor Dowd and the World War II Ghost Army by Enigma Alberti
Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley
Thornhill by Pam Smy
Tim Ginger by Julian Hanshaw
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Winter Wonders by Kate Hannigan

Miscellaneous
Favorites of the first half of 2018
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 02, 2018)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 09, 2018)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 16, 2018)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 23, 2018)
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 30, 2018)
June 2018 Sources
June 2018 Summary

Road Essays
Are small towns uhoric or utopic?
An update on the road narrative reading
Road Narrative Spectrum
What isn't a road narrative: towards an ontological understanding of the road's importance

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Canadian Book Challenge: 2024-2025

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Caleb and Kit: 07/30/18

Caleb and Kit

Caleb and Kit by Beth Vrabel is about a secret friendship between children who live across the river from each other. Caleb is experiencing his first summer of relative freedom, unusual because he has cystic fibrosis. Kit is newly moved into the old house across the stream and she is full of stories of fairies and magic. But not everything she says adds up.

The story is narrated exclusively from Caleb's point of view. He's twelve and he's going through a rebellious phase. He's upset at being forced to go to summer day camp — something usually reserved for much younger children. His older brother is working an internship. His parents are divorced. His mom, therefore, is working extra shifts and she doesn't feel like she can trust Caleb to be by himself.

Caleb spends a lot of this book ignoring his mother's wishes and sneaking out from day camp. He's being a kid but he's also putting himself at risk because of the CF. Because of his ongoing irritation at being different and at having a condition that most people don't understand he comes across as a not so likable character.

But the book does include all the details of what it is like to live with CF — something I've not seen in a novel before. The only other CF book I can think of is Breathing for a Living, Laura Rothenberg's memoir.

The book isn't just about Caleb. There's also Kit. She's clearly not being well cared for — any adult reading this book will see that. She pulls Caleb into a bunch of things he otherwise wouldn't be doing — some that could get him into trouble or hurt or worse.

Four stars

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