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In: Ideas You Can Use, Middle Grade Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews
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Jade and I spent our entire dinner conversation on Saturday night talking about our memories of being bullied as kids, bullying in general, and how adults “bully”.  I had just finished Teen Ink’s collection of essays, Bullying Under Attack, and was so moved by the essays contained within that I had to share my reactions with him.   The book did exactly what it was meant to do:  foster a meaningful, insightful, and thought-provoking conversation about people’s use and abuse of power, the three roles involved in that power-play and the short and long term consequences of bullying on everyone involved.  While it was “easier”Read More →

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In: Realistic Fiction (YA), Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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What if hex lessons could empower a bully’s victim to enact revenge?  What if we could send out psychic energy as an agent of change?  These are questions Mariah Fredericks explores in her book Season of the Witch.  The novel features Antonia Thurman, a sixteen year old junior who wants to be elegant, fiercely smart, and strong but still funny and nice.  Instead, she is the target of bully Chloe Nachmias, a petite and perfect, every-part-ideal beauty who causes others to feel clumsy and insignificant.  Chloe and her minions, Zeena and Isabelle, make Slam the Slut everyone’s favorite game, with Toni the target since sheRead More →

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In: Romance (YA), Sports (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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A reader who enjoyed Lauren Morrill’s debut novel, Meant to Be, or who appreciates books like Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride should find pleasure in Morrill’s latest book, Being Sloane Jacobs.  Despite the plot similarities, this book pushes beyond girl drama and romance, skating its way into the sports genre—with a couple of richly descriptive scenes where Sloane Emily and Sloane Devon compare gross injuries. The skating rink is Sloane Emily Jacobs’ childhood home, but when life in D.C. begins to spin out of control, the figure skating rink becomes another arena where Seej—as she is called by her brother James—feels judged and whereRead More →

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I honestly don’t know how she does it. Every A.S. King book I read grabs me by the throat, reaches down into my heart, and completely engulfs me in a powerfully told, unflinchingly portrayed, ultimately redemptive story of a teenager on the edge of his or her own particular abyss.  King skillfully, lovingly, and realistically creates well-rounded young people whose lives are pretty crappy when the story opens but through their own choices, dogged perseverance, and sometimes a little help from a friend or an adult with a clue, rise above the cards that were dealt to them and come brilliantly, if not a littleRead More →

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In: Ideas You Can Use, This is interesting, What's Happening at PBC
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We’ve made it easy for you to keep up with all the upcoming and brand new releases; check out our PBC Featured Collections powered by edelweiss! Elementary: Summer 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSum13Elem Fall 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCFall13Elem Spring 2014: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSpring14Elem Middle School/Junior High: Summer 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSum13JH Fall 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCFall13JH Spring 2014: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSpring14JH High School: Summer 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSum13HS Fall 2013: http://tinyurl.com/PBCFall13HS Spring 2014: http://tinyurl.com/PBCSpring14HS Plus! Our “One Form and You’re Done” Collections are here. We combed through our featured collections (above) for the whole year and picked out all the must-have titles, and created these collections for you. It’s easy to keep your library current with any size budget. Got $500? Choose our Cream of the Crop Collection– itRead More →

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In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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More questions than answers. At the end of the book, that’s what I’m left with.  Who are SYLO? What is The Ruby?  What are those strange flying ships? Why is Pemberwick Island under quarantine? Who are all the people suddenly on the island?  What do Tucker’s parents know that they aren’t telling him?  What happened on the mainland?  Is there anyone Tucker can trust? Every single time you think you’ve figured something out, another mystery appears, confounding, frustrating, and driving you on in the vain hope that you can have at least one answer before the end.  But it is not to be.  Both theRead More →

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In: Middle Grade Reviews, Realistic Fiction, Realistic Fiction (YA), Sports, Sports (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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As proven time and time again, Mike Lupica has the talent to get the reader right into the action: whether it’s on the court, on the diamond, or on the fifty yard line, there’s a visceral, in-the-moment, hard-hitting feeling to all of Lupica’s sports-action sequences.  The pulse-pounding, bone-crunching, split-second action on the football field in QB 1 is yet another example of how skillfully Lupica can make a reader (even a girl who’s never touched a football) feel what it’s like to be the quarterback, in the pocket, waiting for an opening, dodging a hefty tackler, hoping to make the down and move the teamRead More →

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Sonya Sones‘ latest verse novel, To Be Perfectly Honest, tells the story of 15 year old Colette’s summer in San Luis Obispo, babysitting her 7 year old brother Will, while her utterly famous mother films yet another Hollywood blockbuster.  Having been forced to give up her planned summer trip to Paris to be exiled in nowhere, California, Colette is bitter, angry, and pouting.  Life couldn’t be worse as day after day of boredom looms ahead of her with nothing to look forward to and no one her own age to hang with.  But when she and Will run into a beautiful stranger with a motorcycle,Read More →