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At the end of her sophomore year, Summer Everett will travel to France to visit her father, a famous but somewhat flaky artist.  She will be spending her sixteenth birthday away from all that is familiar in Hudsonville, New York, where her mom is a philosophy professor.  In Provence, she anticipates a summer of possibility, inundated with wild surprises, maybe even her first kiss.  But without the abundant confidence and curvy figure of her BFF, Ruby Singh, Summer is plagued with uncertainty.  In fact, Summer’s favorite question is what if: What if I answer my cell phone before I board the plane for France? OrRead More →

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In this final installment of Kelley Armstrong’s the Age of Legends trilogy, Forest of Ruin features twin sisters Moria and Ashyn as they face complications, conflicts, and epic decisions with the potential to save or imperil the empire. This book picks up the trilogy plot after Shadow Stalkers have massacred the village that Moria and Ashyn called home.   As a result, Moria’s sister and the children of her village are missing, her father has been murdered, her emperor is handing her over as a traitor, and two of her friends may not be the people she thought.  The thoughtful and subdued Gavril Kitsune and theRead More →

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Tessa Lowell was eight years old when she reported seeing Lori Cawley’s murderer, evidence that helped put Wyatt Stokes in prison as the Ohio River Monster, a serial killer whose victims are young women from whom the monster not only steals life but a piece of jewelry as a trophy. Ten years later, Tessa returns to Fayette, Pennsylvania, from Florida—where she has been living with her grandmother—to visit her dying father in prison.  While in Fayette, another girl is abducted and murdered.  With the death of Ariel Kouchinsky, ugly childhood memories flame to life, and guilt and doubt again haunt Tessa.  Traumatized by her past,Read More →

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Defender is Edgar Award-winning author Graham McNamee’s latest book, so it features a mystery plot, but McNamee also performs some genre-blending to create a sports story with some psychological thriller elements, as well. With its focus on the ugly effects of anger and on hiding family secrets, Defender frequently reminded me of Hidden Roots by Joseph Bruchac.  Although Bruchac’s book doesn’t carry the sports angle and McNamee’s doesn’t develop the theme of awareness of ancestral heritage as a key in shaping identity, both novels feature protagonists who learn that life doesn’t work well when lived in hiding and that “never tell” is not a healthy familyRead More →

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In real life (IRL), Scarlett Epstein attends Melville High; she’s sixteen years old and the product of a home broken by divorce.  To escape the mundane fakery she encounters in school—where everyone’s life seems defined by relationship drama, financial status, and popularity—she writes fan fiction based on the Lycanthrope High series created by John St. Clair and posts it online.  In writing group fashion, her online forum of friends share their alternate plots and embellished characters and give one another feedback.  But when the show is cancelled, Scarlett feels adrift and without a purpose.  Writing makes Scarlett feel like a real person; it allows herRead More →

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Whether you’re vying for a spot on Jeopardy, studying for an exam, wanting to impress someone with your trivia smarts, or simply hoping to learn more about sports or geography, My Weird School, Fast Facts Sports/Geography by Dan Gutman is for you! This two-in-one book features as narrators: Arlo, a.k.a. “Professor AJ, the professor of awesomeness” (4), and Andrea Young, who is in the gifted and talented program at school and is going to Harvard someday (6).  Although the two tweens do overuse the word weird, they share with readers many interesting and esoteric facts, such as how the tradition of the seventh inning stretchRead More →

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Upheaval.  That one word sums up Josh LeBlanc’s life.  His father, a minor league baseball player turned coach, has accepted a job with Crosby College in Florida.  Gary LeBlanc hopes to turn Crosby into a training ground for the majors, but Josh isn’t happy because the job means he will be leaving behind his home in Syracuse, New York; his team, the Syracuse Titans; and his friends.   He’ll also be saying goodbye to any hopes that his mother and father will get back together since his mother and baby sister Laurel aren’t planning to move.  On the trip south, thirteen-year-old Josh is overcome by sadness, worry,Read More →

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In The Secrets of Solace, Jaliegh Johnson brings the fantasy World of Solace to life with maps, vivid descriptions, relatable conflicts, and characters to whom the reader can form a connection.  Although the target audience for Johnson’s book is tween readers, anyone who finds fascination in archives and museums will likely consider this tale intriguing. Because the Winterbocks died from a pestilence when their daughter Lina was nine years old, she has been entrusted to the care of Zara, a senior archivist in the mountain stronghold of Ortana—an underground community of rocks and caves.  Besides humans, Lina’s world is populated by shape-shifting chamelins, a sarnun speciesRead More →

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Friends, family, babysitting, and playing the French horn comprise the interests of twelve-year-old Gabby Duran.  To Gabby, every child is a puzzle-locked box that can be solved: “If you [are] interested in them enough to figure out the puzzle, you [can] open that box and completely connect with the person inside” (44).  That philosophy, and her aversion to the words strange or disgusting as descriptors for children and their behavior, make her a superior associate for the Association Linking Intergalactic and Earthlings as Neighbors (A.L.I.E.N). Working for A.L.I.E.N. as a Sitter to the Unsittables, Gabby encounters a troll family and their son Trymmy, who—just likeRead More →