In a few decades, the long-standing gender selection of choosing boy children over girls will result in a 5 to 1 ratio of boys to girls across India and violence will erupt as the availability of this scarce resource (eligible, healthy young women) dries up and people realize the mistake they and their government have made for far too long.  A small group of powerful, forward-thinking women promise a respite: a new country within the boundaries of India, sealed off, safe, and a haven for families with daughters, Koyanagar.  People from across the country flock to the emergent nation, hopes buoyed by the promise ofRead More →

I love a good con.  Movie, TV show, book – it doesn’t matter, really – whatever the media, when the wool is pulled over someone’s eyes (especially when we thought we were on the look-out), it’s a genuine thrill.  I’m especially enraptured by the reveal: going back through those moments of deception, misdirection, and nuance when, now that it’s being laid out in plain sight, I wonder at how I (and the mark) could have been so blind.  But that’s all part of the fun, the lure, and the draw to this genre, isn’t it? Returning in Spring 2015 with his sophomore YA effort, JohnRead More →

It seems a common theme: a young woman, popular, powerful, reckless, driven, and admired; yet underneath, harboring seering secret pain, broken and wracked with guilt over the merciless ways she misuses her power, crumbling under others’ expectations and the pressure to maintain the perfect facade.  And then she snaps and, in the case of  junior Liz Emerson in debut author Amy Zhang‘s Falling Into Place, drives her car off a cliff one snowy January day. Reconstructing Liz’s life –  her rise to be queen bee and her spiral downward – are her two “best friends”, Julia and Kennie.  We also meet a variety of otherRead More →

On the day when his younger brother, Luke, needed him the most, Matt Turner wasn’t there for him.  Now, after Luke’s suicide, Matt lives in guilt over not being there for his brother both during the bullying that lead to his suicide and on that last day; anger at both his parents for their ineffectual response to the tragedy; disappointed in friends who turned their backs when things got tough; and completely without faith in God and in a future where life “will get better.”  Matt clings to his girlfriend, Hayden, like a drowning man hanging onto a life preserver, even though their relationship isRead More →

“Here is a girl trying to change her story” (276) Mysti Murphy knows that the people in her family – “a person who paints and cooks and never leaves the house … a person with a job who gently tries to get everyone to leave the house together … a bratty little uninformed person who practices raising an eyebrow as a hobby … [and] a girl person who would just like everyone to leave her alone by the window…” (7) – would make for an interesting story.  Her strange story begins within a story, since she came into this world believing she was a characterRead More →

In the hands of a master storyteller. That’s where I like to find myself. Where I can let go completely, feast on the imagery, devour the delicious characters, and fall head over heels into an exquisitely constructed world.   Chock full of insights, life lessons, patient wisdom, and human truths, the work of a true craftsman (or woman) serves them to you like your favorite dessert, allowing you to savor, wanting more, and leaving you ultimately satiated and satisfied beyond belief.  What a sublime treat, then, to have spent time in the deft hands of master Deborah Wiles, in the second of her documentary novelsRead More →

It’s starting again: the loud buzzing in his ears, the crows following him everywhere, the cold sweats and paranoia, and the voice in his head.  Miles had a schizophrenic breakdown  two years ago on the beach near his San Francisco home and he’s blamed himself every day since for the destruction it caused his family.  He’s supposed to be managing his disease with a cocktail of meds and weekly talk therapy, but he knows it isn’t working, and  he’s gotta do something to fix his broken brain and his damaged family: “Sick. Schizo. And it really only feels like a matter of time before theyRead More →

In his last published work,On a Clear Day, Walter Dean Myers imagines a world not too different from the one we live in today: globalization has enabled 8 giant, multi-national corporations to take over every aspect of our lives, entrenching people into rigid socio-economic classes with little hope of upward mobility; millions living on the edge of poverty turn towards racial and class violence as a means of survival; the food supply is heavily regulated and people are starving to death on a daily basis; terrorism is on the rise in all parts of the world; and the global education system has been dismantled in favor ofRead More →

John Feinstein puts you in the heart of the game.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the baseball field, the basketball court, or the football field, when you open up the pages of one of his books, you are in the center of the action with the thrill, the agony, and the controlled chaos of sport whirling around you.  Years of sports experience, finely honed descriptive skills, and a gift for storytelling combine to make Feinstein’s young adult novels captivating, action-oriented, and worth reading whenever you can get your hands on one. In The Walk On, out this Fall from Knopf, we meet freshman Alex Myers. His folksRead More →