Today @KirkusReviews...

...I wrote about Renée Watson's This Side of Home:

In a story that deals so heavily with social and political issues, it would have been easy for Watson to veer into didactic territory, to allow the issues to overshadow the personal. But she doesn’t. It would have been easy, too, to use Maya—the passionate daughter of activists—as a mouthpiece. But she doesn’t do that, either. Maya has strong opinions, yes, and she gives voice to them… but she’s not infallible, and she’s certainly not incapable of taking a step back and reconsidering another perspective.