By:
On:
In: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews, Multicultural, Supernatural & Horror
With: 0 Comments

As Jing turns eleven, she realizes that the age is “like an age of breakthroughs – tea-drying for the first time, my first offering to the guardian, visiting a new city, getting a new hanfu…new adventure, new experiences” (30). What seems like an exciting new period of her life quickly turns into her greatest fear, though. Jing’s widowed Aunt Mei has led the family since the death of Jing’s mother, and because of low resources, she convinces Jing’s father that it is time for Jing to get married. Jing is spirited enough to fight back against the plan to sell her to a big cityRead More →

By:
On:
In: Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Some books engender an anger and a disgust so intense that readers want to reach inside the pages to yank an abuser right out of a child’s life.  A List of Cages by Robin Roe is one of those books.  Julian Harlow’s Uncle Russell joins Dave Pelzer’s mother from the A Child Called It trilogy and Liam’s father from King of the Screwups by K. L. Going as characters with diseased brains. Having lost his parents in a tragic accident, Julian is orphaned and spends some time in a foster home before his Uncle Russell takes him in.  However, Russell is unfit for parenting, abusingRead More →