By:
On:
In: General Book Reviews, Multicultural (YA), Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Having been abandoned by a mother who can’t love like a normal mom, fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary and her eleven-year-old brother Caleb live with their Aunt Jenny in Hannibal, Missouri.  And even though Sarah-Mary is normally a rule-abiding, responsible girl, her best friend Tess Villalobos convinces her to exchange school for a road trip to St. Louis to see the Gateway Arch.  While there, a mild case of claustrophobia and acrophobia overwhelms Sarah-Mary.  Because she passes out, she is found out, so her aunt tightens the rules and sends Sarah-Mary to Berean Baptist, a strict private school, not only to teach her the value of discipline but toRead More →

By:
On:
In: Middle Grade Reviews, Realistic Fiction
With: 0 Comments

Just as teen readers of Lauren Myracle’s books, such as ttyl, were inspired to reflect on the bad decisions they might otherwise have made without thinking of the consequences, now tween readers will get the same opportunity by reading Lisa Greenwald’s January release, TBH, This Is SO Awkward. While this novel’s content is not as provocative as that in the Myracle series, Greenwald uses a multi-genre approach, writing her novel with memos, diary entries, texts, emails, postcards, and notes passed in class to recreate sixth grade drama. In addition to navigating math midterms, reading logs, and social groups, Victoria Melford has to endure the tortureRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure (YA), Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Forced to kill or die, Archer Aurontas has a history of horror as a cage fighter for the impressors.  Wishing to be whole again, he looks to Sefia, a girl who is focused, determined, and daring.  The daughter of Lon and Mareah who were hoping to shape the future, Sefia is known as the traitors’ child and as a girl whose life is illuminated by magic. Hoping to atone for what Sefia sees as the sins of her parents, people who helped to set in motion the prophesy for the Red War, Sefia steals the Guard’s greatest weapon, a weapon of paper and ink.  ThisRead More →

By:
On:
In: Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense
With: 0 Comments

A magnet for mystery and adventure and interested in creepy things, Devlin Quick loves sleuthing.  All her detective practice is training for the day she can devote herself to finding her dad’s killer.  Sleuthing runs in the family since Devlin’s dad covered international politics as an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal and her mom, Blaine, is New York’s Police Commissioner with a reputation for being “fierce and fair and fearless” (94).  Although twelve-year-old Devlin is willing to leave the fierce quality to others, she acts when she encounters a wrong. Set in both Manhattan, New York, and in Big Timber, Montana, The DevlinRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure (YA), Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

With tears in her eyes and her best friend’s blood on her hands, at age 14, Androma Racella is banished from her home planet, Arcadius.  Although a freak accident accounted for Kalee’s death, Andi had taken a vow to protect General Cortas’ daughter, a vow that she failed to keep. While alone and fighting to survive, Andi meets Dextro Arez, a Tenebran Guardian and the most notorious bounty hunter in the Mirabel Galaxy who teaches her the art of combat.  When Dex chooses duty over his heart, Andi steals his starship in an act of revenge.  Living for the thrill of a life dangling on theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Middle Grade Reviews, Sci Fi & Fantasy
With: 0 Comments

Consumed by grief, the Darrow family is broken, and nine-year-old Stanley is wishing with all his effort that some kind of magic will arrive to put his family back together after the death of his father.  “From the bottom of [his] flip-flops to the top of [his] Chicago Cubs baseball cap” (22), Stanley vows to find a way to make that happen. While searching for a solution, Stanley encounters a man in a green jacket who can make leaves dance.  When the mysterious man with a crooked grin shows up on the Darrow’s front step, Stanley wonders whether a male nanny (a manny?) can replaceRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Middle Grade Reviews
With: 0 Comments

In a style similar to that of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl, Nicholas Gannon writes The Doldrums and the Helmsley Curse, a stand-alone sequel to The Doldrums, and adds illustrations similar to those drawn by Brian Selznick in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  This combination of ingredients makes Gannon’s book a reading treat for middle grade readers. The story’s protagonist, Archer Helmsley is a troubled child who talks to taxidermied animals and sets tigers lose in museums.  He has been waiting for twelve years to meet his grandparents, famous explorers and “practically fictional characters” to Archer, who has read their journals and knows their talesRead More →

By:
On:
In: Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Living in a world where books are thought to clutter the mind and technology is shunned in favor of a photographic memory called Knowing, Samara Archiva wants to heal the Knowing with Forgetting so that the Knowing can find peace.  Without Forgetting, pain is a constant for the Knowing, and many commit suicide to escape the process of reliving excruciating memories that never fade.   Knowing, which essentially means to remember too much, leaves no room for imagination or dreaming, and from an early age, the Knowing are taught the importance of concealing emotion and for caching memories.   Caching, a special privilege of the Knowing, involvesRead More →

By:
On:
In: Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Despite the world’s efforts to destroy them, Wilhelminia and Gerhard keep each other alive.  Born into the Royal House of Heidle, Wil and Gerdie are spares, the youngest and scrawniest children of the king of Northern Arrod, the world’s wealthiest nation.  Wil, like her queen mother, is a restless wanderer, a child in love with the free air.  Although Wil is also a champion for justice, a darkness lurks in her blood, a curse that has scarred her, leaving a birthmark.  Gerdie, forever the pragmatist, believes that spells and curses are nonsense.  A scientist who clings to logic, Gerdie thinks magic is a fairy tale. Read More →