Weekly Reviews: Boarding Schools & Sports
Today we review two notable debut novels featuring teen protagonists who are talented at the sports they love — riding and rowing. There are a surprising number of similarities between these books....
View ArticleBased on a True Story
Before I began writing this post, I always believed that the famous retort to the question of why one would climb Mount Everest–”Because it’s there”–had been spoken by Edmund Hillary, the first...
View ArticleWeekly Reviews: Alex Winners Redux
And speaking of Alex Award winners, today we have two more reviews of novels by previous winners. Neil Gaiman is one of those magical writers who seems to be able to write for any age level, with a...
View ArticleAlternatives on a Classic
Jillian Cantor has taken Anne Frank’s Diary of A Young Girl and written an alternate fiction in which Margot, Anne’s older sister, did not die in Bergen-Belsen after all. Instead, she survives and...
View ArticleBiographies
Today we have two very different, almost opposite, biographies about acting, written by journalists: one a cautionary tale of talent wasted, the other an inspirational story of talent emergent....
View ArticleWhere the Dystopian Craze meets Literary Fiction
On Such a Full Sea was published in January, so we are a bit behind here. Truth be told, we did not receive a copy for review, nor did we assign the book to a reviewer. I mention this because it’s such...
View ArticleTwo Strong Women in Love
Both of today’s novels are about far more than romance, but love is certainly one element they share. Another is a strong cultural setting. Jean Kwok is known by many librarians and teen readers as the...
View ArticleNew Books from Three Popular Authors
Rainbow Rowell’s many, many teen readers are definitely not the target audience for her summer novel, Landline, but no matter. Rowell’s signature clever dialogue and snappy one-liners are in generous...
View ArticleExotic Global Settings
The Caribbean, Tasmania, Afghanistan… Sense of place and culture dominate today’s books, two novels and one collection of poetry. Tiphanie Yanique is a native of St. Thomas who now divides her time...
View ArticleTwo Takes on Environmental Destruction
Today, we review two books that examine the environmental destruction of small towns, and the ensuing fallout in the community at large. In Rene Steinke’s Friendswood, the eponymous town has been the...
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