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In: General Book Reviews, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Romance (YA), Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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Emily Taylor shares her vivid imagination for magical worlds in her recent young adult novel, The Otherwhere Post. Taylor tells the tale of Maeve Abenthy who has lived for the past seven years with the knowledge that she has a murderer’s blood running through her veins.  Believing her father unleashed the Aldervine in Inverly, separating families and causing the deaths of many innocent people, Maeve feels cursed, so she hides behind aliases. Despite his abhorrent legacy, Maeve, a lover of the written word, has always found fascination in her father’s work with scriptomancy, “the art of enchanting any piece of existing handwriting” (8). When sheRead More →

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Jules Bakes and Niki Smith collaborate on a graphic novel for middle grade readers, Sea Legs. Set in Florida and in various other water accessible communities, it tells the story of two twelve-year-old girls with different family dynamics who both live on boats. As readers follow the events in the lives of the pair, we discover not only the perils and the benefits of breaking out of one’s comfort zones but also that there are different ways to be friends. Our friends can make us feel better about ourselves as well as stretch us to be braver and smarter, inspiring us to try harder. PerhapsRead More →

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XiXi Tian’s debut young adult novel, This Place Is Still Beautiful, features the stories of Margaret and Annalie Flanagan. The two sisters face the complicated elements of identity, family dynamics, ugly truths about racism, and growing up as mixed race teens in Illinois.  Tian’s approach challenges the reader’s perspective as she shares insight and invites us to look from various lenses. Annalie’s father left when she was only three, so she has no memory of him. Her Chinese mother is determined to protect her girls from the pain she herself endured in a biracial marriage that ultimately fails when cultural differences intrude. Still, Margaret lovesRead More →

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In: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews, Multicultural
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Although Ruth Behar’s historical fiction novel for middle grade readers is titled Across So Many Seas, the author could just as easily have named it Across So Many Generations. Set in four locations over multiple centuries and following the lives of four twelve-year-old girls, Across So Many Seas tells the story of the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. The first segment is told from Benvenida’s viewpoint and captures a time when the high arts, such as reading, writing poetry, and singing sacred prayers in the synagogue were left to men. Still, Benvenida seeks freedom and autonomy. Her mother encourages her to “always live theRead More →

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Set in Manchester, England, All the Hidden Monsters by Amie Jordan tells the story of werewolves and other supernatural characters who live Downside. One of the author’s favored worlds, Downside is patterned after the tunnels where bodies were often piled during the Bubonic Plague. Here, Jordan imagines a supernatural society who lead alternate lives Upside. When one of Sage’s friends, Lucinda Hague (aka Lucy), another werewolf that Sage met in the orphanage, shows up dead, Oren Rinallis of the Arcāmum is called in to investigate. Led by Roderick, the Arcānum is a warlock institution comprised of those with powerful magic who uphold law and orderRead More →