School Library Journal

A book list star review said of the book, Cameron's gripping account carefully balances visceral descriptions of the Nazis' mind-numbing cruelty with moments of tenderness, as well as showing the prisoners courage, resilience, and creativity.

Sharon's books have won the Parents' Choice Gold Award, the Westchester Fiction Award, the Junior Library Guild's Gold Standard Award, and earned starred reviews from Booklist, SLJ, Bookpage, and Kirkus, and have been chosen for Indie Next Top Ten, Audible Best Books, and among many others.

in this file sharon melina and i discussed using her classical piano training as a foundation for her writing how she stumbled upon inspiration for the latest out on book tour the differences between dramatized reality and pure historical fiction writing for young adults and balancing darkness with hope her 20-year friendship with rudis of patties and a lot more Stay calm and write on.

And don't forget, you can always support this show by heading to writerfiles.fm, where you can also sign up for email updates and other resources for writers.

Welcome to The Yarn, a School Library Journal production.

I'm Travis Yonker.

Luke Pearson is well known for his Hilda series of comics, which became a Netflix animated series, but he's never made a picture book, until now.

Thank you to my co-host, Colby Sharp.

Additional music for this episode from the Free Music Archive.

You can visit us online at the School Library Journal website.

I'm Travis Yonker.

Thanks for listening.

And it is at number two and number seven for the regular hardcover and the deluxe edition on the indie bestseller list, which is awesome.

School Library Journal.

I thought this was so interesting.

They put out a press release the Monday after the book came out that said it was currently topping library hold lists.

We've talked to each of them individually, and those are two of our most favorite episodes on The Rogue Librarians.

Ashley Hope Perez is the author of Out of Darkness, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, and also received a Prince Honor, the Tomás Rivera Book Award, and the Americas Award.

Despite its many accolades, Out of Darkness has become one of the most frequently banned books in the United States.

Determined not to be silenced, Ashley writes, speaks, and advocates for the value of diverse literature for all readers.

She is the past president of the Oklahoma Library Association and served as co-editor of the American Association of School Librarians National School Library Standards for the second edition.

She is a 2025 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, a 2026 School Library Journal Librarian of the Year finalist, and a 2026 Oklahoma National History Day Junior Division Teacher of the Year.

Charity and her husband have two adult sons and two extremely spoiled rescue dogs.

I love that.

Um, and there was just this lack of books in the middle.

And I wrote a blog post for, um, School Library Journal's Teen Librarian Toolbox, um, you know, complaining, like, there are not books for middle schoolers.

Here's what we need.

Christina wrote a similar blog post separate entirely from me about how all the books are really thick and we need shorter books, um, 'cause we gotta get kids into reading.

We were just talking before we started recording about how the reviews that came out for this book at the time it was published were so mixed.

Like it got a starred review from School Library Journal, which is like the highest review you can get in children's literature.

And then it got some reviews that just absolutely trashed it.

Expanding the fairy tale to epic lengths and losing more than she gained.

Outlets like Common Sense Media explicitly called it Star Wars by way of Tolkien.

School Library Journal pointed out the overly convenient magical solutions in the early chapters.

Those judgments are entirely fair and accurate as a judgment of the first book.

But they are deeply incomplete as a judgment of the entire four-book cycle.