Iveliz Explains it All

 This book was quick and easy and heavy and sad. Iveliz is messing up again? She hit someone else?! She's still mad at her mom? Why won't she talk to her therapist? Why won't she talk to her mom? I felt the same way while reading this book as I do when I'm close friends with someone with an untreated mental illness: exasperated, incredulous, tired. But honestly, usually I don't stay in those friendships for long because they are so exhausting (which is one reason I thought Amir was, like, the champion of all champions for sticking it out as Iveliz' friend). So, bravo to Andrea Beatriz Arango for what I thought was an excruciatingly accurate portrayal of a mental illness and how absolutely tiring it is for everyone in that person's life. The book was well done and important and a page-turner (surprisingly), but it was also difficult to read. Again, a lot like a person with mental illness is interesting and important, but can be so difficult.

Freewater

Often Newberys will remind me of other Newberys I've read. Plot lines and characters are comparable, settings and situations are similar (don't get me wrong; usually because they're good!). One reason I loved Freewater is because I felt like it was unique. Certainly the setting and idea were original because I literally had no idea before reading this book that people escaped slavery and lived in swamps in the American South! No. Idea. 

I thought Amina Luqman-Dawson was a good storyteller and her characters were interesting. Billy was my favorite. Sanzi drove me crazy. The contrast between kids who had grown up enslaved versus those who had grown up free in the swamp was well done. 

The last third of the book had me on pins and needles. I could not figure out how the kids' crazy plan would turn out any way that didn't end in them all becoming enslaved (again). And then Suleman enters out of nowhere and solves everything? I'm going to have to call that a Deus Ex Machina. But I still loved the book.