Bookshelf (Reviews by R. L. S. Hoff)

Here’s a selection of books I’ve enjoyed (or in the case of some of the non-fiction, found valuable).

If you’re a fellow lover of books in general, but especially YA, middle grade, fantasy, and science fiction, you might find some favorites here (or maybe discover some new treasures).

If you’re looking for books to help you on your writing or publishing journey, these are some I’ve found particularly useful. Just click on the cover to see my review.

The cover of Ryka Aoki's Light from Uncommon Stars sits next to the words "Couldn't put this one down"

Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars

The Cover of The Last Cuentista sits atop streaks of red and blue paint. On the cover, a painting in reds and blues of a girl's face and upper torso. She appears to be sleeping. Behind her are jungle leaves and a sickle moon.

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

The picture shows a box set of three of Octavia Butler's books: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago

Lilith’s Brood

The cover of Susan Patron's The Higher Power of Lucky in front of sand dunes. On the cover, a girl in a flowy red dress reaches for the title.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

On the cover of TJ Young & the Orishas, A boy with a glowing spear floats deep under the sea. Giant eels swim around him.

TJ Young & The Orishas

The Cover of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz shows children and animals playing in front of Tudor-style houses.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

box set that shows three books in the Versatile Layer Series--The Red Girl, The Glass-Runner, and Trial by Combat.

Versatile Layer

The cover of Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim shows a young woman with a flying raven behind her. She wields needle and thread, and seems to be floating in a cloud of fabric.

Spin the Dawn

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book hovers over a barren graveyard landscape.

Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book

Marie Lu's Skyhunter appears larger than life on a library table. On the cover, a brightly colored, a silhouetted figure stands alone in a brightly colored almost alien landscape.

Skyhunter

A mock up of Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me hangs in the air in front of a dark vortex

When You Reach Me

The cover of Clare Vanderpool's Moon over Manifest on top of cracked dry earth. The cover shows a girl in blue overalls balancing on one rail of some railroad tracks as she walks along.

Moon over Manifest

The cover of Dead End in Norvelt shows a Dead End sign covering a boy's face. In the background, a plane skywrites Jack Gantos's name in a blue sky with a few puffy clouds.

Dead End in Norvelt

The cover of The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate shows a gorilla sitting back to back with a baby elephant in a spotlight. Around them are shadows.

The One and Only Ivan

On a field of blue, a cell phone shows the cover of Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer, which has a girl's head in the middle of a burst of color. Her hair is glows gold, her skin is dark, and painted with white dots across her forehead and cheekbones.

Raybearer

Floating over a background of sand dunes, a cellphone displays the cover of JL Kaiser's AEON The Sands of Undal. In it, a girl's torso is prominent, over gold clouds.

AEON The Sands of Undal

Jade City--a digital cover for the book by Fonda Lee. It shows greenish, leafy embellishments on a dark background. Near the bottom, a button invites the reader to "continue."

Jade City

Cover from A Voice that Thunders by Cully Mack--a reddish-haired woman holds a ball of light (or possibly ice) in her hands. Behind her, the sky is streaked with lightning and stars.

A Voice that Thunders

This shows the cover of Theresa Kay's Broken Skies--where a girl walks off into a golden cloud or explosive plume.

Broken Skies

Cover of Mazie by Melanie Crowder, which shows a girl in front of the front of a theater, with her name in lights (and the author's on the board where they'd usually name the featured show.)

Mazie

The cover of Kate DiCamillo's Flora & Ulysses, surrounded by greenery, and framed with a typewriter, a vacuum cleaner, a pair of sunglasses, a teacup, a donut, and a necktie.

Flora & Ulysses

Cover of Marie Lu's The Kingdom of Back -- a light blue stylized tree on a blue background.

The Kingdom of Back

The Priestess Trials cover on a cell phone. A woman in a leather dress holding a spear looks out over a river toward a waterfall.

The Priestess Trials

Cover of The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis. A beautiful dark-skinned woman with white wings and a blue ballgown touches hands with a tall, good-looking man in black with light skin, black hair, and black wings. Where their hands touch, there are sparks.

The Raven and the Dove

Cover of The Crossover by Kwame Alexander--silhouette of a boy twirling a ball made of words on one finger

The Crossover

Ebook cover of Invisible on a computer screen over a background of flowers. A gold and red crown sits in the foreground.

Invisible

A hardback copy of The Girl who Drank the Moon--without its jacket-- sits atop a fan, and pictures of paper cranes swarm above it.

The Girl who Drank the Moon

The cover of Stephanie Meyer's midnight sun (pomegranite on black) sits on a dark background with hearts

Midnight Sun

The cover of Merci Suarez Changes Gears is shown in small form on a cell phone in black and white. ON the cover, a girl rides a bicycle along a row of houses.

Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Beyond by M.C. Winkkle on a cell phone. On the cover: A girl in silhouette stands atop hills in front of a colorful starry sky.

Beyond

A screenshot of my kindle version of The Captain's Boy by Don Callaway The cover shows a man in revolutionary-era dress with a musket over one shoulder standing in front of a wagon and a log cabin.

The Captain’s Boy

New Kid--by Jerry Craft The book sits on a chair On the cover, a kid in a gray hoodie and black slacks scribbles in a notebook

New Kid

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is written over a narrow winding street with Old-style architecture

A Christmas Carol

The cover of Sarah, Plain and Tall (from a screenshot on my computer) shows a woman and a couple of children in old-fashioned clothes walking up a path through flat farmland.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

A paperback copy of Cress sits on a Christmas quilt next to a red document tubedecorated for Chinese New Year. There's lots of red.

Cress

Cover for Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson (Special 40th anniversary Edition) on a computer screen. Picture--Silhouette of girl swinging on rope from a tree across a gully toward silhouette of boy next to taller tree. Background blues with stars, silhouette of a pink/purple castle foggy in the background.

Bridge to Terabithia

A postage stamp commemorating Louisa May Alcott's Little Women shows the four girls reading a letter.

Little Women

The title page of The Case of the Missing Marquess sits over a mass of purple flowers

Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess

A paperback copy of Holes sits next to a dirty trowel. On the cover, there's a lunar-like landscape the top of a boy's head near the bottom. He's wearing a red cap.

Holes

A paperback of If You Love Me, Call Me Dorrie sits on a blue background with pink flowers. ON the cover, a girl sits, hugging her knees in front of a farmhouse.

If You Love Me, Call Me Dorrie

The cover of Fran, the Second Time Around shows on a computer screen. Fran is pictured with a pale face and two braids.

Fran, the Second Time Around

A library copy of Binti floats over Earth as if the book is in space. On the cover, a brown-skinned woman marks patterns in an orangish red on her face.

Binti

The cover of Adelaide and the Dragon Castle has gold lettering and swirls on greenish background

Adelaide and the Dragon Castle

A paperback copy of Scarlet sits on a ladderback chair. On the cover, red fabric flows.

Scarlet

The cover of Find Layla on a computer screen. The cover shows the name in bubble letters of various colors on a background of light blue

Find Layla

The two volumes of Boxers & Saints sit side by side, so that the faces of the two protagonists merge into one.

Boxers & Saints

The cover of Carl Hiasssen's Hoot on a cell phone. It shows an owl, with the eyes forming the Os in Hoot.

Hoot

On a cellphone propped in front of two spiral notebooks, the cover of Because of Mr. Terupt shows. It has a blue backpack with the lettering in gold on it.

Because of Mr. Terupt

A paperback copy of Cinder rests on a red poster tube. On the cover, a woman's leg in a red pump has mechanical parts showing through the skin.

Cinder

Cover of Flying in a Cage on a cell phone. A girl floats upward into the sky, as if carried by a helium baloon.

Flying in a Cage

On the cover of Opposite of Always, two teens sit on a stairway--again, and again, and again, going off into the distance.

Opposite of Always

The cover of Charlie Franks is A-OK on a cell phone. A girl in overall shorts gives the OK sign.

Charlie Franks is A-OK

A hardback copy of Micah McKinney and the Boys of Summer sits on a table next to a ceramic mug, a notebook, and a necklace. On the cover, a blonde girl in a red swimsuit dangles on a diving board over a swimming pool.

Micah McKinney And The Boys Of Summer

A paperback copy of The Book Thief. On the cover a set of dice sits on a table.

The Book Thief

The Cover of Love and Muddy Puddles sits atop a rural scene. On the cover, a girl in a raincoat, scarf and rainboots shivers.

Love and Muddy Puddles

On the cover of Judith Robbins Rose's book, a preteen in shorts, a striped shirt and a greenish trench coat stands on a city street under the title "Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco" and the author's name.

Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco

The cover of The Hate U Give sits above swirling police car lights. On the cover, the main character, Starr, who is black, holds a sign, much as one would hold a protest sign, but her sign gives the name of the book.

The Hate U Give

On the cover, a girl made of light strides across a view of a person in a canoe at sunset. Across the water is the title "Jacob have I loved" and the author Katherine Paterson

Jacob Have I Loved

The cover of Jeff Seymour's Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue features a hot air baloon with a ship underneath

Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue

The cover of Kiera Cass's The Selection--for a review by The Pencil Princess Workshop

The Selection–a review

The cover of Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly features kids and a dog hiking through a forest, with one kid and his backpack alone at the base of a tree below the title.

Hello, Universe

This is the cover of Sara Zarr's book, Story of a Girl, the subject of a review

Story of a Girl–A Review

The Cover of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness features a desert landscape with deep cracks and an abstract blue artwork that may be an ice sculpture.

The Left Hand of Darkness

The cover of Candy Dawson Boyd's Circle of Gold features a girl in a button down shirt with a backpack over one shoulder staring at a gold ring that seems suspended in the air in front of her

Circle of Gold

The cover of Demelza Carlton's Dance features a young woman in a white robe with rose petals blowing around her and littering the ground at her feet.

Dance

The cover of Randa Abdel-Fattah's Does my Head Look Big in This? shows a girl in a red hijab looking up at the title.

Does my Head Look Big in This?

The Cover of Laura Resnick's Rejection, Romance, & Royalties shows mostly text that largely cover a woman's face.

Rejection, Romance, and Royalties

The cover of H. Leighton Dickson's Dragon of Ash & Stars features a black dragon snout with a ring in the nose.

Dragon of Ash and Stars

The cover of Austin J. Bailey's The Mage and the Magpie features a girl crossing from a desert scene in reds and oranges to a more blue scene with a wrought-iron fence.

The Mage and the Magpie

As illustration of Fledgling--a review; the cover of Natasha S. Brown's novel, which features a woman's face.

Fledgling–a review

The cover of Lori Brighton's The Mind Reader shows a young woman balancing on a rock with water all about her.

The Mind Readers

The cover of Sarah Mlynowski & Farrin Jacobs' See Jane Write features a keyboard with chick-flick elements on the letters.

See Jane Write: A Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick Lit

Sticks and Stones

Trickster’s Girl

The Creative Life

An Acceptable Time

Writing Stories: Fantastic Fiction from Start to Finish

The Goblin War

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Signs of You

The Bad Beginning

Robert’s Rules of Writing

2,000 to 10,000: How to write faster, write better, and write more of what you love

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire

The cover of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix shows Harry Potter, wand out, in a high-ceilinged room with a fancy chandelier and many portraits.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Secret Kingdom–Glitter Beach

Moods

The Cover of Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation, & Conflict features the initials of the title in super-large type down the left side.

Goal, Motivation, & Conflict and The Elements of Style

The cover of Savvy by Ingrid Law--a gold and blue sky over a road through the countryside

Savvy

A little hardback copy of Pride and Prejudice sits on a wooden table next to a globe.

Pride and Prejudice