Penelope “Lo” Marin isn’t the kind of girl who makes friends easily; her family has moved almost every year she’s been in school, having stayed in Cleveland for almost 2 years is a remarkable occurrence; she’s socially awkward, shy, and nervous; she has obsessive-compulsive disorder that she tries desperately to hide; and since her beloved brother, Oren’s, death last year, she’s fallen into a pit of near-madness and despair.  Isolated within her family – her dad has become a work-aholic, and her mom never gets out of bed – Lo has taken to riding the Cleveland transit system, getting off at random spots and wandering. Read More →

From the moment it started, Min and Ed’s romance was doomed to failure. For six brief weeks their relationship was intense, all consuming, and fated to burn bright, hot, and fast.  When the co-captain of the basketball team, notorious playboy, and school’s hottest guy and a quirky, “arty”, cinema-hound girl collide one night at a Bittersweet 16 party for Min’s best friend Al, the gravitational pull overwhelms them but it also creates a black hole from which Min, at least, can’t escape.   Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up explores the idea of opposites attracting, the tug of war between their disparate worlds, and the casualties that result from twoRead More →

Sitting under a blanket, with a cup of hot cocoa, watching the snow fall… ok, so in AZ I can do the first two and enjoy Winter Town, the latest from Stephen Emond, but alas, no snow here.  But it’s not really necessary, since Emond does a good job creating a sense of winter on every page of Winter Town: the cold gray skies; the biting wind and thick blankets of snow; the pristine landscape; the almost harsh feeling in the air late at night when it’s far below zero.  And of course, the feeling of isolation, the sense of reflection and doubt, and theRead More →

I’ve been looking forward to Cinder: The Lunar Chronicles Book One by Marissa Meyer since the ARC came a few months ago. As the book got closer to the top of my pending stack, I kept glancing at the cover and wondering, excitedly, what the retelling of Cinderella as an android would be like.  So finally, on Tuesday, Cinder was at the top of the pile. I don’t remember much about Wednesday since I spent most of the day reading.  And despite a little awkward editing, I was rewarded for my patience with an engaging, fast-paced, creative story. In this era of re-imagining and retellingsRead More →

*The True Story of My Fairy Godparent, Who Almost Killed Me, and Certainly Never Made Me a Princess Jennifer Van Der Berg isn’t really the kind of girl who wanted a fairy godmother to grant her wish to be a princess.  She certainly isn’t the kind of teen to be swept up, head over heels in love, with the boy of her dreams. She’s pretty average, actually. A little quick to anger sometimes. Really, more of a cynic than anything else. So when the book Born To Be Extraordinary rockets her to fame by completely misrepresenting her “adventure with her fairy godmother”, Jennifer has noRead More →

Who wouldn’t want a glimpse into their future? To see what your life is like 15 years from now, who your friends are, what your job is, where you live and if you’re happy.  But how do you piece together a true picture of your future if it’s revealed in a list of “friends” you many not even know, photos that haven’t been taken yet, and random tidbits (“Cake for breakfast – yum”) that don’t make sense?  For Emma and Josh in 1996, getting access to their lives in 2011 via an AOL disc that reveals their as-yet-to-be-invented Facebook pages, there are just as many gaps inRead More →

Peter Parker, meet Steve Jobs. In a 21st century twist on the superhero genre, Kevin Brooks gives us iBoy.  Tom Harvey is a average teenager living in the lowerclass section of London, in a housing project rife with gangs, drugs, violence, hopelessness and poverty.   Not one to meddle in affairs that don’t directly impact him, Tom keeps his head down and muddles along.  On a day when he’s going to visit Lucy, a girl in the projects he’s known since childhood, Tom’s fate is sealed: an iPhone is thrown from the 3oth floor, hitting him in the head at 77 miles per hour, fracturing his skull andRead More →

New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater has created something wonderful, enchanting, thrilling, and unique in her latest, The Scorpio Races.  It’s hard to say what I like most about this book – its breathtaking scenery and visceral sense of place; the pulse-pounding thrill of the wild horses racing on the beach; the lovingly crafted, superbly detailed characters (human and horse); the fact that it’s a unique blend of romance, action, coming of age, and fantasy that feels so different from most everything else out on the YA market right now; or maybe, simply, the powerful honesty of a book well written, carefully edited, and lovinglyRead More →

Dandi Daley Mackall’s latest book for young adults, The Silence of Murder, takes the reader along on a slowly unraveling mystery about a beloved coach, murdered in cold blood; a mute, autistic teen, on trial for the crime; and a strong-willed young woman, determined to prove her older brother isn’t a killer.  Sixteen year old Hope is her 18 year old brother Jeremy’s protector, the only person who truly understands him and appreciates his unique way of being in the world.  Since  Jeremy stopped speaking at the age of 9, Hope has made it her mission in life to be the bridge between reserved, autistic, creative Jeremy andRead More →