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Just as an apple, cut and cored, cannot be put back together, Nella Sabatini–a young Italian Catholic girl–feels undone, confused, and incomplete.  Restless with desire for things her parents cannot afford, for popularity that evades her, and for a sense of peace and quiet that is in short supply with a houseful of “barbarian brothers” and a grandmother who is demanding and grumpy, “ancient and ignorant,” Nella aches for answers to life’s toughest questions and difficult dilemmas.  With happy moments so ephemeral, she wishes, “If only you could store up happiness. . . . Dig a happiness hole, or keep a happiness piggy bank, savingRead More →

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After a school year plagued by panic attacks and trouble eating, Annie Stockton is hoping for a good summer. Her therapist has recommended freedom from the schedules and spreadsheets that Annie’s mother is so good at, hoping to help Annie feel happier and less stifled. Annie loves her mom, but she is tired of feeling trapped every day. “I wanted room to breathe. I wanted to make my own decisions, pick my own passions, study when I chose, and not clean my room if I didn’t feel like it” (183). Annie wants a summer full of the kinds of adventures that she writes about, butRead More →

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Sixth grade is hard, especially for a person who has a strong sense of justice and believes the yearbook should be a snapshot of the school, not just a scrapbook of the popular students in the upper grades.  This tension forms the core conflict in Kristen Tracy’s latest book, Project [Un]Popular. Excited for middle school, Perry and her best friend—the bold and sensible Venice Garcia—join the yearbook staff at Rocky Mountain Middle School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, hoping to share their photography talent and to make a difference.  Perry sees herself as a serious artist and wants her photos to matter.  But the Photography Editor,Read More →

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The adventures of the Legend Hunters continue in Book 2, Darkmouth: Worlds Explode by Irish author Shane Hegarty.  Not unlike the world of Artemis Fowl, predicaments and otherworldly creatures populate Darkmouth, where Finn the Defiant resides.  As a swarm of Legends was descending, Finn’s father pushed his twelve year old son to safety, and the gateway to the Infested Side closed, trapping the last Legend Hunter, Hugo the Great.  Now, Finn has fewer than 48 hours to find his dad who has been declared dead by the Council of 12. Although Finn is determined to rescue his father, the prophesy predicts his peril.  As theRead More →

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Whether you’re vying for a spot on Jeopardy, studying for an exam, wanting to impress someone with your trivia smarts, or simply hoping to learn more about sports or geography, My Weird School, Fast Facts Sports/Geography by Dan Gutman is for you! This two-in-one book features as narrators: Arlo, a.k.a. “Professor AJ, the professor of awesomeness” (4), and Andrea Young, who is in the gifted and talented program at school and is going to Harvard someday (6).  Although the two tweens do overuse the word weird, they share with readers many interesting and esoteric facts, such as how the tradition of the seventh inning stretchRead More →

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Upheaval.  That one word sums up Josh LeBlanc’s life.  His father, a minor league baseball player turned coach, has accepted a job with Crosby College in Florida.  Gary LeBlanc hopes to turn Crosby into a training ground for the majors, but Josh isn’t happy because the job means he will be leaving behind his home in Syracuse, New York; his team, the Syracuse Titans; and his friends.   He’ll also be saying goodbye to any hopes that his mother and father will get back together since his mother and baby sister Laurel aren’t planning to move.  On the trip south, thirteen-year-old Josh is overcome by sadness, worry,Read More →

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In The Secrets of Solace, Jaliegh Johnson brings the fantasy World of Solace to life with maps, vivid descriptions, relatable conflicts, and characters to whom the reader can form a connection.  Although the target audience for Johnson’s book is tween readers, anyone who finds fascination in archives and museums will likely consider this tale intriguing. Because the Winterbocks died from a pestilence when their daughter Lina was nine years old, she has been entrusted to the care of Zara, a senior archivist in the mountain stronghold of Ortana—an underground community of rocks and caves.  Besides humans, Lina’s world is populated by shape-shifting chamelins, a sarnun speciesRead More →

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Friends, family, babysitting, and playing the French horn comprise the interests of twelve-year-old Gabby Duran.  To Gabby, every child is a puzzle-locked box that can be solved: “If you [are] interested in them enough to figure out the puzzle, you [can] open that box and completely connect with the person inside” (44).  That philosophy, and her aversion to the words strange or disgusting as descriptors for children and their behavior, make her a superior associate for the Association Linking Intergalactic and Earthlings as Neighbors (A.L.I.E.N). Working for A.L.I.E.N. as a Sitter to the Unsittables, Gabby encounters a troll family and their son Trymmy, who—just likeRead More →

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Written by daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, The Hero Two Doors Down by Sharon Robinson, recounts the historical fiction tale of tumultuous times of global, racial, cultural, and religious unrest in the late 1940s.  Because of its inspirational message about the need to depend on faith, family, and friends during the worst of times, contemporary readers will find this story of friendship and unity especially relevant as Martin Luther King, Junior’s 87th birthday approaches. In 1948, Steven Satlow is eight years old, and a train ride to Ebbets Field costs five cents each way.  Because Steve is the shortest kid in his class andRead More →