Little Women
I’ve been rereading Little Women the past few weeks, and I’m reminded what a wonderful book it is. I started reading it for a The Enchanted Book Club, but I’m way behind, and haven’t been able to participate in the discussions. Maybe I’ll do better with next month’s selection. Moral Pap for the Young? Louisa […]
Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess
I became interested in Enola Holmes when I saw the movie (on Netflix) titled with her name. I loved it, and her, and so did my husband and daughter, who watched it with me. But, of course, Enola Holmes lives in a book, too. A set of books, really, by Nancy Springer. As I usually […]
Holes
This book has been on my shelf for quite some time, and somehow I never felt like picking it up. Maybe the cover was too bland. Maybe the Newbery sticker faded into the sand. I don’t know. This weekend, though, I picked it up off the shelf, and wow. I like Stanley and Hector and […]
If You Love Me, Call Me Dorrie
If You Love Me, Call Me Dorrie is a nostalgic read for me…a book that someone gave me when I was in late elementary school. It love the characters here, and the Parent-Trap-like machinations of the teens are both funny and heartwarming. I loved and still love the way Dorrie finds her place in her […]
Fran, the Second Time Around
Fran is starting over at a new school because of some tragedy in her past, and at first we’re not sure what that is, but we can see that it’s affecting everything about Fran. I love the voice here, and I love the way that Fran struggles to move past her problems, but I’m not […]
Binti
I picked this up from the library after a friend recommended it on Goodreads, and it’s every bit as good as she said it was. I’m probably going to want to get a copy of my own of this stunning little gem at some point. When Binti leaves home to attend university off-world, her traditional […]
Adelaide and the Dragon Castle
Adelaide and the Dragon Castle has a lot of my favorite things in YA fantasy–great characters, coming of age, dragons. I love the way Adelaide finds her own solutions in a world that glorifies violence. And I love that these solutions don’t come instantly, but take some trial and error. I’m not as thrilled with […]
Scarlet
This is book 2 in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and it’s every bit as good as Cinder. The story continues, with great new characters taking center stage. I love Scarlet’s loyalty and tenacity and Wolf’s fight to hang onto the good parts of his humanity. Thorne is fun, too. (Though I’m not sure […]
Find Layla
I found this, strangely enough, when I was researching ways to format text messages in a book. (If you’re stressing about that, btw, this book does it seamlessly.) In the process of looking at the formatting, I got hooked on the story. Then I had to read the whole thing. Find Layla chronicles a few […]
Boxers & Saints
As you can probably see from the picture, Boxers & Saints is a graphic novel. (Really, two graphic novels.) Now, I’m not usually a graphic novel person, but every so often I run across something amazing. This is one of those things. This is a story ripped from the pages of history–but not the history […]
Hoot
They call this type of fiction realistic–and I guess it is, if you use “realistic” to mean that any given event in the story could conceivably happen in the world as we know it. There’s no magic, and no not-yet-invented technology. On the other hand, I often found my plausibility stretched (the kid with good, […]
Because of Mr. Terupt
One of the advantages of tutoring in English is that I sometimes get the chance to read books for young people that I hadn’t heard of before. This one is fun. It features an unconventional teacher and his students–several of whom narrate the book. The multiple narrators annoyed me a bit at first–I didn’t have […]
Cinder
My fourteen-year old has been begging me to read this one for at least a year now–and it’s spectacular. I love the world-building. Everything from Cinder’s cyborg parts to her stall in the market is shown in beautiful detail that makes the story come alive. And, of course, fairy-tale retellings are among my very favorite […]
Flying in a Cage
Ivory hears music in everything–in birdsong, and wind chimes, yes, but also in the noise of traffic and the rhythm of a dishwasher. There is also music in her heart, making sense of the world and her feelings–much more sense of these things than she can make without it. I liked this look at Ivory’s […]
Opposite of Always
I enjoyed this fun, romantic YA, though it reminded me a bit more of Groundhog’s Day than I would prefer. (Yeah, I was never that fond of that movie.) Still, Jack is a great character, and I love how he grows throughout this book, figuring out what is important to him. Kate is also a […]
Charlie Franks is A-OK
Charlie’s not like Coco. So, when everything seems to be going wrong, she’s determined not to be a drama queen. But keeping all her frustrations inside turns out to be a less than perfect plan. I like how Charlie insists on being herself, and love how she comes to evaluate what’s most important to her. […]
Micah McKinney And The Boys Of Summer
Micah McKinney and the Boys of Summer was a fun read that reminded me of all the intense emotion of going into middle school. Micah may have more serious issues in her life than most young teens, but most will relate to her difficulties adjusting to the way her body, her life, and her relationships […]
The Book Thief
Wow. Sometimes I read a book, and it’s so good, that I’m a bit in awe. This one is like that. I didn’t know what to think, at first, of a book narrated by death. But it grew on me. And seemed so appropriate–Death telling a story about World War II–a time when he was […]
Love and Muddy Puddles
In Love and Muddy Puddles, I don’t quite relate to Coco Franks’s quest to be popular, but I totally get what it’s like to have your parents tell you you’re moving away from the life you know, and your feelings about it don’t matter. Of course, my parents never moved me anywhere quite so remote […]
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco is a good book. Jacinta and Miss learn a lot from each other in this sweet and sometimes sad foray into the life of a young woman and her “amiga.” At the beginning, neither one understands much about the others’ world, and that lack of knowledge leads to […]
The Hate U Give
Like all my favorite stories, Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give introduced me to a whole new world. Except, however foreign it feels to me, Starr’s world exists. It’s in places I can drive to–even if they’re hard for me to see, given that I’m a white girl. My world might as well be a […]
Jacob Have I Loved
Such a good book–and if I found myself a bit disappointed in the end, it’s only because the rest of the book was so astonishingly intense. For hours, I lived in the mind of Sara Louise Bradshaw, a girl growing up in the shadow of her beautiful and talented twin–feeling tall, awkward and unloved, but […]
Nadya Skylung and the Cloudship Rescue
I always enjoy reading works by the RMFW Writer of the Year nominees, and this little gem by Jeff Seymour is one of the reasons why. It has sparkling wit, swashbuckling adventure, and a delightfully idealistic heroine, who starts out a foolhardy tomboy, but ends up a thoughtful and courageous leader. The artwork is beautiful […]
The Selection
I admit that I read this because (a) it was on lots of bestseller lists and (b) I liked the dress on the girls on the cover. I mean, I wouldn’t wear it, but it looked cool. The story was as beautiful as the dress, with a great, spunky main character who is kind, socially […]
Hello, Universe
It’s easy to see why Hello, Universe won the Newbery this year. The kids in this story are quirky, delightfully complex, and easy to believe in and sympathize with. Even Chet, the stereotypical bully, is not nearly so stereotypical as he first appears. Don’t get me wrong. He’s still a bully, and as such, largely […]
Story of a Girl
This is a story about Deanna, a small town girl whose dad caught her in the back seat of an older boy’s car three years prior to the story’s start. Her life (mostly unfairly) has been defined by that moment ever since, but this is the summer where she begins to move forward, forgiving (sort […]
The Left Hand of Darkness
This book immersed me in a world of cold and ice, where devious politics threatened to overwhelm me–and the androgyny of the people seemed among the most normal things about them. As Le Guin says in her introduction, Yes, indeed the people in it are androgynous, but that doesn’t mean that I’m predicting that in […]
Circle of Gold
Recommended to me by K, this is a beautiful tale about a young girl whose family is weighed down by grief, and the lengths that girl will go to to show her mother love and earn her mother’s approval. It’s more serious than K’s usual fare, and that’s all to the good. (There’s nothing wrong […]
Dance
This Cinderella retelling by Demelza Carlton has an Asian setting and a warrior-trained girl as the main character. Mai manages to be humble and confident at the same time, a difficult, but believable mix in this environment. I enjoyed her story very much.
Does my Head Look Big in This?
Does my Head Look Big in This is a frequently funny, occasionally poignant story about an Arab-Australian teenager who decides she’s going to start wearing the hijab full-time (including to her private school.) It dives right into serious issues without making them seem at all heavy (faith, women’s rights, cross-cultural communication, the immigrant experience, getting […]
Rejection, Romance, and Royalties
This collection of essays about making a living as a fiction writer had me laughing out loud and reading extended sections (when I could get them out without cracking up) to my critique group and long-suffering husband. Besides being a healthy dose of fun, these essays were practical and encouraging. I’m currently borrowing my copy […]
Dragon of Ash and Stars
Dragon of Ash and Stars was a Bookbub title I picked up for free, but it was worth so much more than the nonexistent price I paid. This is one of only a couple of ebook titles I’ve read that I may try to obtain in actual paper (the others are Audacity and The Amazing […]
The Mage and the Magpie
A nice little fantasy with interesting characters and some great description. I thoroughly enjoyed it up until close to the end. Then I got a bit weirded out by the bizarre religious rituals and the suggestion that thirteen is old enough to be a mother–of any kind. Still, a fun read, that traditional fantasy lovers […]
Fledgling
I enjoyed this story about a young woman with a serious medical problem and the young man who befriends her at her new school even though it could have used a better copy edit. It also leaned a bit too heavily on Twilight for my taste. Still, a fun read with some interesting characters.
The Mind Readers
I enjoyed The Mind Readers, which dips into the life of a young woman who can tell what everyone around her is thinking. I did find myself wondering why her grandma didn’t prepare her better for the world she was getting into, and why she was so quick to trust a pretty face–though that was […]
See Jane Write: A Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick Lit
I meant to get a book on writing children’s lit from the library, but it wasn’t in, and this was near the empty spot in the stacks (with the “chick lit” part of the title conveniently covered by the library’s bar code). So, I picked it up. I’m glad I did. I’m not sure there’s […]