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Best selling fantasy authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are launching a 5 book fantasy series for middle readers this fall with The Iron Trial.  In their introductory letter to booksellers, they invite us into their world where “a chosen hero, whose high and lonely destiny is to defeat the villain, whatever the personal sacrifice to himself… [who has] tragedy and secrets in his past, magical power” awaits us, but “we wanted people to believe they knew what kind of story they were in for.  And then we wanted them to be surprised…” Indeed, Black and Clare have succeeded in taking the now all-too-familiar conventions of children’sRead More →

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In: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews, Multicultural, Realistic Fiction
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A fearsome force, Susan McCallum is determined, ruthless, and in-charge, but she’s only ten years old and a girl—ineligible for military service during the World War II era.  When the brothers she idolizes, Hank and Theo, decide to serve their country in the navy, Susan is beyond angry.  Their typically stoic, Scottish father, who fears that he may lose both sons, forbids that they serve in the same branch of the military.  So, Theo joins the Army Air Corps, and the two brothers—the best defensive in-fielders in the game of baseball in Accokeek, Maryland—vow to play catch across the world, one aboard an aircraft carrierRead More →

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Nothing is going right for 11-year old Jarrett: he’s gotta pass summer school at an all-boys charter school if he wants to advance to seventh grade, and he overheard the teacher tell the principal she thinks he stupid and won’t pass; his best friend Ennis, recently back from his summer trip to see his dad in Jamaica, is acting aloof and strange; he’s scared to tell the girl he likes, Caprice, about his feelings for her; but worst of all, the most recent foster baby that his mom has taken in came to them with an older brother, Kevon, who’s Jarrett’s age and has takenRead More →

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I don’t even know where to begin, exactly. Jacqueline Woodson‘s lyrical, exquisite, and lovingly crafted verse memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, seems beyond my abilities to critique.  Poems spanning her birth in February 1963 through her fifth grade year take us from Columbus, Ohio to Greenville, South Carolina, and ultimately to Brooklyn, New York.  Born on the edge of the Civil Rights movement, Jackie’s childhood is framed by the Jim Crow south and the hope of the Great Migration, but its richness, texture, and heft comes from her beloved family: her grandfather Gunnar, called Daddy, and grandmother Irby, who raised Jackie and her brother Hope andRead More →

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K.A. Harrington‘s Forget Me is a decent little mystery with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure.  Set in a small New England town, aptly named River’s End, the mystery surrounding a doppelganger for a murdered young man unravels at a measured pace until the very end when the secrets, lies, and motives are exposed in one high-stakes altercation on the top of the town’s waterfall. Three months ago, Morgan’s secretive, moody boyfriend Flynn was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident on a dark road outside River’s End’s long shuttered family amusement park.  Morgan is still reeling from the loss of her firstRead More →

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Lucille “Lucy” Peevey dreams of leaving Sunnyside Trailer Park and becoming a famous scientist. She lives with her mother, Margaret, and her younger sister Izzy. Lucy’s biggest supporter, her grandmother, recently passed away. Before Gram passed, Lucy promised her that she would participate and win the annual BotBlock competition. The BotBlock competition requires applicants to create and program their own robots to complete various challenges. Lucy and her best friend Cam have created their step by step plan to succeed in their goal and win the competition with their own robot, PingPing200. Easy enough right? Wrong. First, Lucy is struggling to survive seventh grade. There is aRead More →

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Last year when Emma was 14 she lost her sight in a terrible accident.  Now, she’s about to return to her sighted high school as a sophomore, having missed her entire freshman year, and she’s no further along in accepting her new life than she was during her “lost year”.  Despite having spent time at a school for the blind and making progress in “life skills”, Emma is still confused, angry, resentful, and despondent.  Returning to “normal” high school seems like it will be a good step towards regaining the life that was stolen from her, but Emma’s feelings of shame, fear, and angst areRead More →

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Another Day as Emily – Eileen Spinelli Have you ever been so tired of life that you decided to change who you were? Eleven-year-old Suzy has.  After her brother becomes a “Little Hero” around town, and her best friend gets wrapped up in her acting pursuits, Suzy is all but forgotten.  She determines to live her life in a new way – Emily Dickinson’s way. Amidst white dresses, letters, baking, and cleaning Suzy learns who she really is in Spinelli’s new novel. Written in verse, it is a very easy, quick read, but one that teaches as it goes. Historical facts and figures abound, engagingRead More →

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I’ve waxed on before about how much I love it when a book transports me into a life I’ll never have the chance to live – into a culture, or a time, or a circumstance – because isn’t that the whole point of reading books?  And in a way, that’s the point of all art – whether its a book, a painting, music, theatre – they’re all expressions of the human experience that we share with others to connect us and celebrate the variety and similarity of our time here on Earth.  Last night I started, and was so transported byPadma Venkatraman‘s newest, A Time toRead More →