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A catalyst for sparking conversations on complex social issues like diversity, bullying, and the effects of prejudice, Alan Gratz’s novel Code of Honor raises social consciousness and invites collaborative conversation about tough topics.  Much like Maria Padian’s novel Out of Nowhere (2013), Gratz uses a sports story to explore the contemporary topic of cultural collisions.  Both books embody the definition of Cultural Identity Literature (CIL). I coined the term CIL to enlarge the traditional term multicultural literature.  As a category of literature, CIL also addresses issues of power and oppression and provides an opportunity to view these issues from a different perspective, thereby inspiring empathy-building. Read More →

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Francis Meredith is clever, funny, interesting, and creative, but he is too worried about the judgment of others to recognize his gifts.  Because he is chided at school for his interest in fashion, design, and sewing, he thinks it is impossible to be happy being himself. So, when he encounters Jessica Fry, he believes he has enough problems without adding an ability to see and hear dead people. Jessica, a ghost who can think herself into a wardrobe, becomes Francis’ friend in what he sees as an otherwise friendless world.  They have an interest in clothes in common and both can talk about synthetic fabricsRead More →

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Six Reasons You’ll Want to Read Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood The cast of characters is interesting: Dan Cereill (pronounced surreal) is nearly 15 when misery throws a sucker punch: the family business goes bankrupt, his dad proclaims he’s gay and moving out, and the comfortable life the Cereills knew, disappears. After these life-changing shocks, Dan and his mother move into the deceased, great-aunt Adelaide’s historic, Victorian home.  According to Dan, it’s the sort of place you’d see in a horror film—complete with grim gargoyles, an attic, and poor heating.  But it is next door to Estelle, the unattainable beauty who plays the celloRead More →

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Although occasionally bawdy with its vulgar language, illicit activities, and other questionable behaviors, Those Girls examines the lives of three girls attempting to deal with their insecurities, fears, and vulnerabilities about being pretty or talented or special.  In this debut novel by Lauren Saft, Mollie Finn, Alex Holbrook, and Veronica Collins have been BFFs since fifth grade, and their friendship has served as a life raft in the turbulent waters of private school at Harwin, an all-girls academy in Greencliff, Pennsylvania. But junior year—with its boy troubles and other social challenges—stretches the bonds of their friendship to the breaking point, and it might take moreRead More →

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In: On the Edge, Reaching Reluctant Readers, Realistic Fiction, Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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Growing up isn’t easy. It never has been, and it probably never will be. High schooler Jason is just trying to make it to eighteen with as little trouble as possible, which is difficult when you have an abusive small time drug dealer for a dad and a little sister to look after. But Jason knows how to fight back; there isn’t a day that his dad comes at him that Jason doesn’t give as good as he gets. His tough kid reputation has made sure that no one at school messes with him. He makes money doing odd jobs around the city, saving upRead More →

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Although aspects of social media possess the ability to provoke intense debate, for seventeen-year-old Sonny (Sonya) Elizabeth Ardmore, an online world serves as a refuge – a place for hope and healing.  Behind the protection of the computer screen, Sonny–who sees herself as the designated poor and less attractive friend–discovers a place to restore her dented dignity and a buffer that allows her to be honest and close rather than using lies as a shield. While IMing her antagonist Ryder Cross, she abandons the lies and lets her guard down to discuss the subjects that trouble her the most: estranged relationships with her negligent mother and convictRead More →

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Heart-rending love stories abound in both history and literature, and Meredith Moore has drawn from that store of knowledge to write her debut novel, I Am Her Revenge.  Taking threads from the tales of Elaine and Lancelot, Romeo and Juliet,  Merlin and Vivien, and Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Moore weaves a tapestry of mystery, romance, intrigue, and revenge.  This is a tale told by a masterful storyteller, complete with imagery richness—details like chiseled cheekbones, a whisper-soft kiss, the smell of a barely tamed wilderness, and the sky, a riotous canvas of pink and orange and red, abound. Dismantled by love and having experienced intimately theRead More →

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Debut author Stacey Lee‘s Under a Painted Sky lyrically intertwines aspects of America’s Western expansion that are rarely, if ever, explored.  Into the very real world of the California Gold Rush, the pioneers’ homesteading journeys  along the Oregon Trail, and the lawlessness of the “Wild West“, Lee creates a powerfully moving story of friendship, race and gender politics, and above all, courage and faith.  It’s a treat to spend time with a writer who takes pains to research and then accurately represent, with beautiful, vivid prose, a world gone by and in so doing, make it vibrant, interesting, and resonant. 15 year old Chinese AmericanRead More →

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Summertime, St. Kilda, Australia.  The long, languid days of  Christmas holiday break stretch before 15 year old Sky Martin.  She and her family, she says, are “like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects.  Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully [her younger brother] had ‘social difficulties’ … I was surface clean, but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering. My defects weren’t the kind you see just from looking.” (2)  Into lives of the Martin family that summer come 19 year old enigmatic Nancy, who challenges, thrills, taunts, and awakes something in Sky she didn’t know was there and tragic, broken, and oh-so-hot Luke, who isRead More →