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Readers of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid will likely enjoy The Boy Problem: Notes and Predictions of Tabitha Reddy by Kami Kinard. While it doesn’t have the plethora of pictures, it has relevance and ‘tween appeal in its plot.   Tabitha Reddy, who believes in signs and clues, thinks it’s possible to predict the future and that wishing on a star increases the likelihood of that wish’s coming true.  Her BFF, Kara McAllister disagrees, saying: “Nothing helps your wishes come true unless YOU do something yourself” (11).  She encourages Tabitha, who is in search of a boyfriend, to be proactive. The social scenes and peerRead More →

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In Katherine Kirkpatrick‘s Between Two Worlds, travelers on a race to the top of the world interrupted life during the 1900’s in Greenland.  The Greenland Inuits were amazed at the expansive wooden ships that rammed upon their shores bringing white men, women in impractical dresses, and canned food. Billy Bah was not exempt from the amazement. She followed the captain of the ship – Captain Peary – and spent time with his wife, especially after the birth of their daughter in the barren tundra of Greenland.  When the Peary’s sail home to America they ask to take Billy Bah with them – the first “Eskimo” toRead More →

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Nina finds herself at one of the many crossroads of life: that weird time between middle and high school, where we all begin to experiment with who we are, and what we want to be.  The thing is though; Nina doesn’t feel as though she is really changing.  She is the quiet observer to the chaos around her. What began as a way to honor her grandmother’s memory becomes Nina’s summer project.   She decides that she will do something nice for someone – one thing for each of the 65 days of summer.  In better observing her neighbors, in order to discover what she mightRead More →

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I guess it’s a universal truth: human beings are fascinated by imagining our own destruction.  Who hasn’t seen movie after movie, tv show upon tv show of the end of the world as we know it: life during and after the apocalypse, the alien invasion, the viral plague, or the crushed citizenry living under a ruthless, post-Armageddon regime?  Not to mention the avalanche of distopian fiction, populated by heroic characters whose grit and determination helps them rise up against the horrors that have pulverized the rest of humanity into pitiful shadows of their former selves.  And I’m not saying that the best of all ofRead More →

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Ben Mikaelsen fans will likely appreciate his newest book, Jungle Bones, which is about a young boy who is angry and fighting to survive.  As I read, many times I was reminded of scenes from Touching Spirit Bear. Dylan Barstow is defiant, disrespectful, and determined to do whatever annoys adults the most.  The only sane part of his life is a black lab named Zipper.  Not quite an eighth grader, this king of contempt has a “file as thick as a phone book” (10) and a chip on his shoulder “as big as a log” (29).  Resentful that his mother treats him like a screw-up, heRead More →

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15 year old Laila’s father is dead.  Numb with grief, shocked by the unexpected loss, and drowning in pain, her life is unrecognizable.  But that’s only the start: she finds herself exiled, with her mother and younger brother, in a non-descript apartment outside Washington, D.C., having fled her country after her father’s assassination.  Not only has she lost her beloved father, Laila has also lost the only life she ever knew: that of the daughter of a king. Her country has fallen into a civil war, as a long-standing resistance now openly challenges her uncle, who has taken over her father’s place as leader.  TheRead More →

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When Theodora “Theo” Tenpenney’s grandfather, Frank, dies unexpectedly, she is left to take care of her mother – a recluse obsessed with mathematical equations. The family house in Greenwich Village is in disrepair. The food is almost gone, except for the chicken eggs. Each morning Theo gathers the new eggs and places the purest, most perfect, egg in the place of honor on the mantel. Serving as an enlarged reflection is Frank’s painting – a large white egg. Theo knows there is something special about that egg. Frank had managed to whisper something about “treasure” and “under the egg”. But what was it? When someRead More →

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“Hope is the thing with feathers-/that perches in the soul,” wrote Emily Dickinson, but ten-year-old Star Mackie isn’t so sure that’s true.  For Star, the main character in Robin Herrera’s inaugural novel Hope Is A Ferris Wheel, hope is a Ferris wheel, and loneliness is perching in her soul.  Star has an empty space in her heart and soul where her dad is supposed to be.  Neither her mom nor her sixteen- year-old sister Winter will talk about Dad, but he is in Star’s head, “making [her] hope for things like birthday cards and ice cream dates and whatever else fathers and daughters [do] together”Read More →

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As if middle school is not frightening enough, Bethany Darling has just upped the rigor for her younger sister Jessica. Jessica Darling is about to start the seventh grade. Jessica thought she had a handle on it… until her older sister reveals to her “The Guaranteed Guide to Popularity, Prettiness & Perfection.” Bethany has paved the road for Jessica to succeed in middle school; Bethany herself has been declared the most popular, pretty, and perfect girl. Jessica has it easy then, right? Wrong!  As Jessica begins reading her Guaranteed Guide to Popularity, Prettiness & Perfection, she realizes that the guide is a lot more detailedRead More →