This is a blog tour hosted by Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den in support of her local public library’s Diverse Book Drive. The CCPL—a small, rural library in an area with a high poverty rate and a very homogeneous population, where people rarely have the means to travel or experience new perspectives. However, the library doesn’t believe that should stop people from learning more about the world around them, so they’re running a Diverse Book Drive through the month of September in an attempt to bring the rest of the world to the county instead. With a focus on MG and YA books, the CCPL aims to expose especially its young patrons to new and diverse perspectives and cultures.
True Friends: Carmen Browne #1
Synopsis (From Goodreads!) Carmen Browne is a ten-year-old African-American girl beginning fifth grade. With her family moving to a new city, Carmen is anguished to give up her friends and comfortable home. As her family adapts to a new location, Carmen learns that finding new friends and fitting in is not easy. Part of her doesn’t even want to try. Family issues become complicated when Carmen’s brother learns he is adopted. Dealing with unpopularity, fitting in, and cultural differences are Carmen’s issues in the first book of the Carmen Browne series.
How Carmen Browne Has Taught Me Over The Years
Pictures of me at 8 or 9, 17, and now 20!
As a young Christian black girl, I felt very isolated. There weren’t many other kids my age at my church and the kids I met and hung out with (mostly non-POC) didn’t go to church or weren’t very involved. As a pastor’s daughter, I didn’t really have a choice in whether to be involved or not. Then, I delved into trying to read Christian fiction. This brought even more problems for me. All the characters in those stories were white, and so these characters had very different lives to me. We might have both lived in the suburbs at the time, but there is a difference between living in the suburbs as one of the only black families and living in a place full of people who look like you. Not even mentioning the fact that some of these books tried to push harmful narratives that my family definitely did not agree with. I’d say the first time I really saw how close-minded/hateful people in my religion could be was through some of these books.
Then, I found the Carmen Brown series and fell in love with it. Carmen reminded me of myself in every single way. The 10-year-old black girl who lives in the suburbs and deals with the struggles of that, check. A young girl who feels connected with her religion and whose parents are very involved in church, check. Sister 2 years younger than her, check. Struggles to process a lot of different stressors at once, check. I felt like I was reading my twin in book form. I immediately flew through the series and was going to read the Payton Skky series until my mom realized the subject matter may be a little too mature for me at 10. (I ended up reading it at 18 and enjoyed it, here are my reviews of Book 1 and Book 2). I already loved reading beforehand, but I related to these books more than I had related to any series before.
When I heard that we were doing a tour for diverse MG and YA books, I knew I had to pick this book. I literally could remember full storylines of this series that I hadn’t read in years, it spoke to me so much. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my original copies of these books, so I bought it on Kindle and reread the first book. Reading this book at 20 was a different experience. I found that the plot moved a lot faster than I originally thought it did, which felt almost too quick for my adult brain. But as a kid, it moved quickly enough to really engage me so I was never bored. I also noticed something that made my jaw drop.
This book includes conversations between characters about the importance of affirmative action. I had always been under the assumption that I never knew about affirmative action until I was applying for college and people in the news were talking about it. But now I realized that I’d thought for years that it was something that needed to be protected, and that was the stance I instantly took when the lawsuits started popping up in the news. Now I realize that this book taught me about something so important before I even knew it was a thing. That’s just the one lesson I learned from this book, this entire series is full of important tidbits like this one. Just another reason to love this series.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an upper Elementary/ early Middle-Grade series to read.
Library Wish List Links
Hardcover books are preferred, but not required! Book donations will be used at the discretion of the library.
Blog tour book wishlists:
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3A68Y0WPKN944
- Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/wishlists/WCD650
- Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/wishlists/a745073e127380f9801a59a39ff7b960a5e9c70e
If someone orders a wish list book from Bookshop, please send a message to sammie@thebookwyrmsden.com.
Other ways to donate:
- Amazon book idea wish list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3OWBBXXOXVS2K
- Monetary donations: PayPal to orders@caseylibrary.org
- Gently used or other new book donations mailed to:
Sammie Betler
Casey County Public Library
238 Middleburg St.
Liberty, KY 42539
Tour schedule:
September 1: Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den – Introduction, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears || Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Dating Makes Perfect
September 2: Lauren @ Always Me – The Epic Crush of Genie Lo
September 3: Toya @ The Reading Chemist – Felix Ever After
September 4: Michelle @ Carry A Big Book – Sharks in the Time of Saviors
September 5: Shenwei @ READING (AS)(I)AN (AM)ERICA – The Astonishing Color of After
September 6: Maria @ A Daughter of Parchment and Paper – Patron Saints of Nothing
September 7: Bri @ Bri’s Book Nook – True Friends (Carmen Browne)
September 8: Bec @ bec&books – Lobizona || Jorie @ Jorie Loves A Story – diverse TTT
September 9: Sienna @ Daydreaming Book Lover – Loveless
September 10: Kerri @ Kerri McBookNerd – Raybearer
September 11: Noly @ The Artsy Reader – The Name Jar
September 12: Jacob @ The Writer’s Alley – Forest of Souls
September 13: Keri @ Are You My Book – The Tea Dragon Society
September 14: Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight – The Space Between Worlds
September 15: Melissa @ Ramblings of a Jedi Librarian – Girl in Translation
September 16: Livy @ Shelves of Starlight – Clap When You Land
September 17: Crystal @ Lost in Storyland – American Born Chinese
September 18: Lili @ Lili’s Blissful Pages – A Wish in the Dark
September 19: Leslie @ Books Are The New Black – The Poppy War
September 20: Noura @ The Perks of Being Noura – Love From A to Z
September 21: Crini @ Crini’s – A Pale Light in the Black
September 22: Rachelle @ Rae’s Reads and Reviews – Dear Haiti, Love Alaine
September 23: Dini @ DiniPandaReads – Wicked As You Wish
September 24: Madeline @ Mad’s Books – Spin the Dawn
September 25: Tessa @ Narratess – Brace Yourself
September 26: Kimberly @ My Bookish Bliss – Truly Madly Royally
September 27: Rena @ Bookflirting 101 – Anna K: A Love Story
September 28: Susan @ Novel Lives – Burn the Dark
September 29: Arina @ The Bookwyrm’s Guide to the Galaxy – A Song of Wraiths and RuinSeptember 30: Maya @ http://mybookishbliss.com/ – Jackpot
[…] ✦ September 7 ✦ Bri @ Bri’s Book Nook – True Friends (Carmen Browne) […]
Aaaaw thank you for sharing your story and this book. This is absolutely precious. ❤❤❤❤
[…] September 7: Bri @ Bri’s Book Nook – True Friends (Carmen Browne) […]
Hallo, Hallo Bri,
I had to come into WP Reader to add my comment to your lovely post!! Not sure why my internet is being so dearly wonky this week — just thankful I can start making headway into the tour route as I received such wonderful RTs. I miss visiting with bloggers (ie. migraines, life, ugh) and this tour was one I truly wanted to participate in for two reasons: the library drive itself & meeting / visiting with all the lovelies who love blogging like I do!! Which reminds me I was meant to write-up a post about the #2020BookBloggingAwards – hmm… I still have time, eh!?
I LOVE stories / series like this one where you can grow with the character!?
For me, as I’ve been a hybrid reader of both INSPY (faith-based lit) and mainstream since a child – my go to favourite INSPY book series was *Mandie!* I loved her Native American Uncle Ned, how she was torn between her humble life and the life her grandmother in Asheville aspired her to embrace; it was set in the historical past and those stories always felt so dearly real to me. Those and the Babysitters Club. I’d love to round out my collection for both and see if I can gather the missing ones I never could find as a preteen/teen which is right round the end of my journey with them both.
The Mandie series was quite expansive for Middle Grade series – as it wanted to show the difference in class and also in spirituality & religion (esp Christianity vs Cherokee spirituality) whilst it also dealt with prejudice, elitism (not from Mandie but she did attend boarding school) and bullying as well as regular things like friendhip, found families, sisterhood friendships, bicultural families and a lot of right/wrong life lessons intermixed too. It also showed how Mandie had a very humble lifestyle and background but through her aristocrat grandmother she had the chance to travel. She also had friends from different backgrounds than her as much as she never went anywhere without Snowball.
In a lot of ways, I guess you could say I identified with Mandie – I lived a different life and had a different kind of family than she did but I lived in a melting pot of a metropolis and I knew Native Americans in my city as well having African-Americans and Hispanic (I’m still uncertain which term everyone prefers, I saw Latinx is in debate now and I just grew used to that spelling – so this might be outdated now too) as much as Asian, and other immigrants in my schools from a very young age. I felt at home in the city due to all the multiculturism and the livelyness of having such a wonderful exchange of culture and heritage all round me. I agree – it would be harder outside that sphere where the populations drop off and you’re instantly in the minority.
Mandie was a fictional merger of reality and I loved the author for keeping the stories both rivetingly realistic but also full of light, innocence and dashes of mystery!
I don’t oft talk about Mandie… as it was one series I kept off my blog as it felt like it had a cherished place in my memories and readerly life before I blogged.. but tonight, after listening to why Carmen meant so much to you, I wanted to share I had a similar journey with Mandie.
Uniquely enough, I ought to have known how much Historical Fiction meant to me but it took me a few years as a blogger to realise how important historical stories were to me! I should have known with Mandie and even Judith Pella’s novel (forgetting the name).
I agree!!! Sometimes we learn through osmosis as they say – we are like a sponge and we can process things at a faster clip of retainment than we realise – old or young, if we’re reading we’re not just reading the story but we’re absorbing the fuller scope of what those messages and themes are representing and how those can become life lessons which help us in the future or in the present.
This brought back good memories for me and I’m thankful we both had a series we could find ourselves rooted inside to where it felt as if we lived alonside the characters who warmed our heart to ‘re-visit’ each time we picked up a new book! #Blessed.
Hello! My apologies for never seeing this comment until now, my WordPress has been so wonky lately. I too ready the Mandy series when I was younger, and I enjoyed it at the time. I might have different thoughts now as I haven’t read that series in a long time, but thank you for reminding me about it!