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One night near the beginning of sixth grade, Ellie’s mom unexpectedly brings home a surly teenage boy, who turns out to be Ellie’s curmudgeon grandfather, Melvin.  Melvin is a scientist (some in the scientific community think he’s a kook), but as it happens, Melvin has discovered a genetic formula to reverse the effects of aging and is now 13 again.  Despite the palpable tension between Ellie’s divorced, thirty-something mother and her now-teenage father, Ellie embraces the chance to really get to know her grandfather.  Ellie discovers that she has quite a bit in common with Melvin (more than she does with her artistic parents), and herRead 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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“Maybe time, as they say, is just a human invention. Maybe I never really left because leaving wasn’t possible. Maybe we’re all on a string, and maybe our past selves are on that string and our future selves are too… Maybe we all just exist, all versions of us just exist at all times, and we just have to figure out a way to get to each of them, to find each one and tell that version that it’s okay, that it’s all just the way it works, just a concept too powerful to ignore but too complicated to explain” (200)  Noggin, the latest fromRead 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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In: Middle Grade Reviews, Multicultural, Multicultural (YA), Realistic Fiction, Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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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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Clay Carmichael’s Brother, Brother shines as an expertly crafted character study and a portrait of a breathtakingly beautiful place, the influence of which shapes the story and the reader.  This is an internal journey of self-discovery, a journey into the meaning of family, and a road trip to a wind swept island where love, power, and jealousy tore a family apart.  Slow moving, thoughtful and though-provoking, and described in vibrant detail, I was lost and then found as I rode along with Brother, his faithful, wise dog Trooper, as they wandered from a place of loss and confusion into a place of forgiveness, hope, andRead More →

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If it weren’t for Vance the Bully, Teddy Fitzroy would have a pretty cool life:  he does OK in 7th grade (sure, he’d like more friends), but he gets to live at FunJungle, the world’s biggest zoo, where his world-renowned parents are live-in scientists.  Being around all the animals has its perks and Teddy enjoys his unusual living situation most of the time.  But Vance’s incessant bullying has gotten Teddy into some trouble, since none of the adults at school will help him ward off Vance’s assaults.  Having taken matters into his own hands, Teddy’s latest prank on Vance has gotten him into a no-winRead More →