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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Selection–a review
The Selection–a review by The Pencil Princess Workshop. 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 […]
Story of a Girl–A Review
Today: Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl–a review. This story features Deanna, a small town girl. Three years before the story’s start, her dad caught her in the back seat of an older boy’s car. Her life (mostly unfairly) has been defined by that moment ever since. But this summer she begins to move forward, […]
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness 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 […]
Dance
Dance by Demelza Carlson–a review. While Dance claims to be a Cinderella retelling, it also has elements of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The two stories combine beautifully in an Asian setting with a warrior-trained girl as the main character. Mai manages to be humble and confident at the same time, a difficult, but believable mix […]
Does my Head Look Big in This?
Does my Head Look Big in This is a frequently funny, occasionally poignant story. Amal, an Arab-Australian teenager decides she’s going to start wearing the hijab full-time (including to her private school). The story dives right into serious issues without making them seem at all heavy (faith, women’s rights, cross-cultural communication, the immigrant experience, getting […]
Dragon of Ash and Stars
I picked up Dragon of Ash and Stars for free (after seeing it in a BookBub feature). But it was worth so much more than the nonexistent price I paid. The story impressed me so much that I may try to obtain in actual paper. (Only a couple of other titles have impressed me this […]
The Mind Readers
l enjoyed The Mind Readers, which dips into the life of a young woman who knows what everyone around her is thinking. I did wonder why her grandma didn’t prepare her better for the world she was getting into. And why was she so quick to trust a pretty face? (Though the book explains that–not […]
Sticks and Stones
Mandy, the heroine in this book, manages to work through an overwhelming burden of grief and guilt without that burden overwhelming the reader–or becoming trivialized. Granted, she’s got magical help, but still, it’s an impressive feat. I’ll definitely be picking up more of Shawn Mcguire’s books in the future.
Trickster’s Girl
Trickster’s Girl was another gift from the RMFW conference. This was well written and engaging. I enjoyed Ms. Bell’s Goblin War piece more, but I suspect that has less to do with the books themselves and more to do with my own preference for straight up fantasy than for Native-American-religion-tinged urban stuff. I also tend […]
An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time is a nice enough story about Polly, one of Meg and Calvin’s kids. But, it doesn’t have quite the magic of A Wrinkle in Time or the other books in that series. I’m not entirely sure what makes the difference. It might be that the science is more fantasy than science. It […]
The Goblin War
As I’ve probably mentioned before, one of the great things about RMFW conferences is the number of books we get in the swag bag. I love, love, love going home with enough to keep me busy–for a bit anyway. The Goblin War is one of these. I certainly never would have picked up only book […]
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I thoroughly enjoyed this, though I must admit I found it less satisfying than the original seven. The story line is great; it’s lovely to get to know some of these characters as adults, and I’m interested all the way through. However, I miss the inimitable style (and punny humor) of the originals, to say […]
Signs of You
I pre-ordered this book months ago when I first heard it was coming out in part because I’ve met Emily France, and she’s lovely, but mostly because I had seen or heard just a bit of the story at some RMFW event and was longing to read the rest. It does not disappoint. Riley and […]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
My kids and I have been reading through the Harry Potters together for several months. We just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We’re reading together because the kids are getting pressure from classmates to read and discuss the books. However, I don’t want my two reading them on their own yet. […]
Savvy
Savvy is a fun little book by Ingrid Law. I enjoyed every minute–from meeting Mibs Beaumont and her unusual family all the way through to the semi-sweet (my favorite kind) finish. In the middle, I also loved seeing the crisis that befalls them and the swashbuckling adventure Mibs undertakes to try and solve the problem. […]