George knew that Mom was trying to help. But George didn’t have a normal problem. She wasn’t scared of snakes. She hadn’t failed a math test. She was a girl, and no one knew it. -Alex Gino, George Synopsis: George is a girl. Her body might fool people into thinking otherwise, but she knows she’s a girl.…
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, or so we are told, as if this means we’re all so different it is nigh impossible to reach each other. The way we talk about gender makes it easy to forget Mars and Venus are part of the same solar system, divided by only one…
I finally understood why I felt ashamed to sit in my father’s Cadillac. The reason for my shame and for the revolution is the same: the difference between social classes.” -Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Synopsis: Marjane Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, and this graphic memoir details what she…
Dam Square is the center of Amsterdam’s energy–it’s always bustling with Dutch people on bikes, tourists ducking into souvenir shops, and street performers attracting large crowds. Our first hostel was a two-minute walk from Dam Square, so we spent a lot of time in and around the plaza. I think every time we went I got…
Adversity is like a strong wind. I don’t mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.” -Arthur…
There was only one sunny day during our entire Amsterdam trip, and it also happened to be the day that Matt and I wandered off and did our own things. We agreed on a time to find WiFi and communicate with each other, but were otherwise independent from each other. Yet he and I both…
When I was in kindergarten, my teacher had a poster that was supposed to teach you about feelings. The feelings were all simple ones, like ‘happy,’ and ‘sad.’ They didn’t tell you about feelings that got mixed together like a smoothie.” -Victoria Jamieson, Roller Girl Synopsis: Best friends Astrid and Nicole have always done everything together,…
My parents raised me to be a traveler. I’ve experienced almost as many countries as I have birthdays, and many of those trips were with family. My mom takes planning a trip to the extreme, filling a binder per trip with daily itineraries and pre-purchased admission tickets and Google Maps printouts and Rick Steves city guides. I learned from…
Stones are just stones and rain is just rain and misfortune is just bad luck. Some things are simply more rare than others, and that’s why there are locks.” -Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See Synopsis: Marie-Laure is a blind girl in France who adores her father, a museum keeper who carries a valuable, magic…
“I kind of want to get a tattoo while we’re here,” Matt told me on Thanksgiving Day as we wandered the streets of Amsterdam. I wasn’t shocked–Matt is constantly coming up with impulsive ideas and acting on them–but I was a bit skeptical that he’d actually follow through. Choosing a tattoo design can be a…
Victim to Charm 