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Set in San Francisco, Five Elements: The Shadow City by Dan Jolley tells the story of five young elementalists trapped in a magickal nightmare.  Together, the youth must combine their powers to fight the Eternal Dawn, an apocalyptic cult trying to merge two worlds into one so that Earth will be swallowed by Arcadia.  By speaking the language of dirt and rocks and sand, twelve-year-old Kazuo Smith can bend the earth to his will.  Thirteen-year-old Lily Hernandez has a similar ability with air, her twin brother, Brett, can harness the powers of water, Gabe Conway possesses the power of fire, and Jackson Wright is magick bound—aRead More →

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Actually, David wears the headphones to keep him from feeling anxious, to help him cope with his symptoms of highly functioning autism.  He also makes notes in a notebook, to learn social norms and social cues, to remember names, and to make sense of all the parts of the world that confuse him.  These differences and his predilection for honesty and disclosure often get him in trouble.  So, when Kit sits at his table at lunch, David is surprised. A month after her dad’s death in a car accident, Kit is looking for quiet, for a port in the storm of confusing emotions. Grief hasRead More →

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Sometimes a story can take us to a place of understanding and awareness.  Cultural identity literature at its best, The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller transports readers to a place so familiar we wonder whether we haven’t been here before, where we know the people and can relate to their challenges, where we share their hunger for fulfillment, their starvation for affection, attention, and validation, and their hunger for justice. This book will appeal to readers who enjoyed Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron or Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Although it is a book for all readers,Read More →

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Being smart or being different often makes a young person a target for bullies.  From age four on, David Scungili and Michael Littlefield have been unfairly labelled as Stoopid and Pottymouth, nicknames that brand them for a life of cruelty, blame, and untruths.  Although these details outline the plot of James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein’s recent middle school novel, Pottymouth and Stoopid, the authors also delve into the insidious effects of bullying and the survival tactics used by the bullied.  With every chapter creatively illustrated with cartoon-style drawings by Stephen Gilpin, this book performs some myth-busting about the stereotypical bully and gives hope to theRead More →

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Bravelands: Broken Pride is the first book in a beast fable series by Erin Hunter.  The novel offers significant lessons for human society about identity, change, excessive ambition, and the value of believing in a higher power or of adhering to a Code, such as “You may kill only to survive” (18).  Although Hunter recycles plot elements from the Disney film Lion King, she reshapes the story with new connections and perspectives, adding threads to develop her themes. Hunter’s novel follows the adventures of the young lion Fearless, who has been exiled from his pride by the ambitious and evil Titan, who kills Fearless’ father,Read More →

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Imagine living underground without sunlight, sky, fresh air, or space to run unfettered.  Set in an underground city called Caverna, A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge imagines that possibility for the reader.  An amazing machine where nothing happens naturally or without planning, the city is home to many craftsmen and women who create the world’s delicacies: wines, cheeses, spices, perfumes, and balms.  Despite these elegant refinements with their magical properties, Caverna is a dark and drab and dank place, where even the citizenry have been deprived of real emotion.  Instead, they select a suitable Face from the 200 they have been taught in infancy. Read More →

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How to Be The Someday Suitcase by Corey Ann Haydu Share the lives of believable and genuine characters: Ten-year-old, curious, and easily distracted Danny who is in charge of passion and of reminding others how to have fun; eleven-year-old Clover who loves science, has a knack for observation, and is in charge of reason and reminding Danny to focus; six-year-old Jake who can make any situation lighter, sillier, and simpler because his moods are big, buzzy, and contagious. Look for scientific reasons to explain life’s mysteries but realize that science shows us both certainties and limitations to those certainties. “Ms. Mendez says the best scientistsRead More →

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If you’re looking for a novel this summer that will inspire thought about all of life’s big topics, like love, sex, kissing, loss, and death, Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue is that book.  Although a simple-looking book on the surface, Words in Deep Blue packs a philosophically powerful punch by asking some tough questions, inviting the reader to wrestle with a variety of options about topics that matter, questions like: Are all worthwhile things—like love and the ocean’s depths—also terrifying?  It poses some theories, too—about how people are like secondhand books, full of mysteries, or how science attracts us because it is rich withRead More →

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According to seventeen-year- old Louna Barrett, “You can’t measure love by time put in, but by the weight of those moments” (115).  She had only loved Ethan Caruso for a short time, but he was her “once and for all,” until he wasn’t. Since losing Ethan, Louna is prickly, antisocial, and somewhat cynical about love.  Ethan, whose mother had been married multiple times, had been cynical about marriage, but Louna knows a lot about weddings, after having worked summers at her mother’s wedding planning business.   She sees a wedding as a series of special moments, strung together like beads on a chain.  A Natalie BarrettRead More →