Book cover of Blood Brothers

Book description

Written and illustrated by Rob Sanders. This award-winning novel is about Calvin Johnston and how his secret is out. He and his brothers are tainted. Untouchable. And the bad blood flowing through their veins is threatening to kill them. So are some of their neighbors in Ashland, the “Friendliest Little…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Blood Brothers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In this historical fiction verse novel set in 1987, we meet Calvin Johnston and his brothers. The brothers all have hemophilia and have contracted HIV through blood transfusions.

Calvin and his family live in Ashland, the “Friendliest Little Town,” but many of the people in Ashland react out of fear rather than friendship when they learn of the Johnston brothers’ diagnosis. I grew up in a small, sheltered town like Ashland, and I have to wonder how our village (and young me) would’ve reacted to a similar situation.

One of the things I love most about books is that they…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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