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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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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 →

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Reality TV is everywhere; one can hardly think of an aspect of modern American life that hasn’t been manipulated, exposed, and hyped up by “reality” TV.  So it’s no surprise that the casualties of this epidemic are starting to find their way into other media, including books for teens and kids.  Last year I loved A.S. King’s Reality Boy and on Sunday I fell head over heels with Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff.  Earlier this spring I got lost in the halls of Minneapolis’ Selwyn Academy, a fine arts high school that is at the center of For Art’s Sake – Fame, but for Real.  KateRead More →

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I’ve been thinking about vulnerability a lot lately.  Part of it is due to reading this; and what surprises me is once you start looking for authenticity and its root, vulnerability, you see it everywhere.  What you also see are the walls, suits of armor, and other shields our culture teaches a person to use to hide, protect, and deny this most human of all qualities.  Imagine how thrilled I was when, just a few pages into National Book Award Nominee Lisa Graff‘s forthcoming Absolutely Almost, I realized that I was holding a book deeply interwoven with vulnerability and authenticity.  And my excitement was not disappointed inRead More →

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Diggy Lawson is not your typical eighth grader. Instead of spending his time playing video games and texting his friends, Diggy enjoys being a member of 4-H and raising cattle to compete in the Minnesota State Fair. 4-H is an organization for people to join in the areas of environmentalism, animal care, veterinary science, and many more. With this organization, members must pledge to a clearer thinking about their world by using the four H’s: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. Diggy loves being a part of 4-H and has a crush on a girl named July, who has competed and won at the Minnesota StateRead More →