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By 2050, global warming has turned the climate into mankind’s enemy: once “normal” weather systems like hurricanes and tornadoes are now monster storms that ravage the world with their intensity and frequency.  Life has become a dual existence of living indoors: above ground anxiously waiting for the next storm system and then spending a good deal of time in underground storm shelters wondering if your home has been annihilated.  Playgrounds are built in cavernous underground shelters, no one rides bikes, goes on picnics or travels far.  The food supply is all grown in special DNA-ture farms secure from the uncontrollable weather.  Amid this dire climate,Read More →

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We’re giving away a Zero ARC and a Destined ARC! Learn More About the Books: Zero by Tom Leveen: For aspiring artist Amanda Walsh, who only half-jokingly goes by the nickname Zero, the summer before college was supposed to be fun—plain and simple. Hanging out with her best friend Jenn, going to clubs, painting, and counting down the days until her escape. But when must-have scholarship money doesn’t materialize, and she has a falling out with Jenn that can only be described as majorly awkward, and Zero’s parents relationship goes from tense to relentless fighting, her prospects start looking as bleak and surreal as aRead More →

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The Temptation by Alisa Valdes doesn’t feature the vampires or werewolves of a Maggie Stiefvater or Stephanie Meyer novel, but the character list does include shape shifters and a ridiculously handsome, courageous, and devoted male protagonist.  The plot also revolves around a paranormal romance with sequels to follow. This first installment of the trilogy—a magical and mystical romance set in Albuquerque, New Mexico—tracks the story of sixteen year old Shane Clark and her love interest, Travis Hartwell, a revenant who alternates between human and ghost forms.  Shane drives a fancy car, attends a fancy school, owns a fancy dog, and listens to fancy music untilRead More →

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Denise Fleming’s book Shout! Shout it Out! is a fantastic early learning participation book. Based on a very simple premise-if you know it, shout it out-a small mouse takes young learners through basics like the numbers 1-10, the ABC’s, identifying colors, animals and more. This book makes learning into a game, encouraging preschoolers to participate while featuring uniquely fun and bright artwork. The simple text clearly identifies every object on the pages and the precocious little mouse shows up on every page, so make sure to keep an eye out for him too! If you have an early learner in your household, or a classroom fullRead More →

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Sinister, blood-thirsty ghosts in fog-filled cemeteries, a Medieval cathedral and castle-turned boarding school, and an angry 11 year old boy sent away from home when his widowed mother becomes engaged to a new man.    A story spun with all the cinematic detail, coming-of-age life lessons, and supernatural qualities of her other works, Cornelia Funke‘s newest book, Ghost Knight, is a tale full of danger, bravery, and friendship. Jon Whitcroft tells us the story of his first year at an English boarding school, where he was sent after some very terrible behavior towards his mother’s fiance.  Jon had expected to be miserable in Salisbury and forRead More →

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Budget cuts at Julius P. Heil High in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, ignite a testosterone exodus as athletes seeking programs that will lead to scholarships leave in droves.  Flynn Meaney’s novel The Boy Recession takes up the story of how Julius students make the best of a bad ratio.  Although the story revolves around typical high school drama with its myriad of personalities, the spotlight falls on sixteen year old Hunter Fahrenbach, Kelly Robbins, and their immediate circle of friends. Fahrenbach, a slacker with ambitions for little besides sleep and music, eventually proves he has depth when he performs on Open-Mic Night.  His guitar/vocal solo landsRead More →

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In: Historical Fiction (YA), Mystery & Suspense (YA), Romance (YA), Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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First impression suggests that Robin Wasserman‘s Book of Blood and Shadow has a lot of similarities to Jennifer Donnelly’s fantastic Revolution:  a modern American teen girl whose brother has been tragically killed; a family torn apart by their overwhelming grief and inability to deal with the loss; finding solace in the letters (journal) of a seemingly inconsequential teen girl hundreds of years ago; and discovering clues to a long-forgotten mystery.   In The Book of Blood and Shadow, high school senior Nora thought she was signing up for an easy honors extra credit project – working with an eccentric Medieval Studies professor translating old LatinRead More →

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In: Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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The latest from National Book Award Finalist Julie Anne Peters, It’s Our Prom (So Deal With It), is a sometimes comical and often insightful look at a high school rite of passage. Prom is, was, and always will be an event meant for the popular kids, the jocks, the socials and the kids with money –  the geeks, freaks, and uniques have never felt welcome.  Forget about attending if you don’t have a date, can’t afford the dress, tux, limo, or high ticket price.  And even if you do go, it’s just a boring dance where the school’s most popular kids elect each other asRead More →

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Study finds e-readers have opposite effect on middle school girls who struggle with reading (blog.smu.edu – Posted on March 21, 2012 by Margaret Allen) Middle school boys rated reading more valuable as an activity after two months of using an e-reader, according to a new study. The findings come from a study of 199 middle school students who struggle with reading and who participated in a reading improvement class that included Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, said one of the study’s authors, Dara Williams-Rossi, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. The researchers found that boys consistently had a higher self-concept of their reading skill than girls both before and afterRead More →