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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Jordan Sonnenblick doesn’t skirt around the difficult issues in this book – coming to terms with denial, anger, and bargaining among the everyday and all-consuming world that middle school can be. Thirteen year old, Steven does not only have to focus on getting good grades, but also practicing for the All-Star…
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Book Review: "The Swift Boys & Me"
I picked this book up thinking it would be a middle grade novel where everything gets wrapped up very neatly by the end of the story, but I was pleasantly surprised with the ending of this book although there was closure, it was not how I expected it to end. …
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Book Review: The Fourteenth Goldfish
I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this uncorrected proof while at ALA in Las Vegas this year. The Fourteenth Goldfish will not be on sale until August 26, 2014, which means this review is based solely on the advanced read’s copy (ARC) and information…
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Book Review: Absolutely Almost
From the author of A Tangle of Knots comes a true coming-of-age story about the importance of knowing who you are and understanding that it is essential to stand up for yourself. Albie is familiar with the feeling of being almost – almost good at sports, almost smart in school,…
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Grasshopper Jungle
I reviewed an ARC copy of this book and let me tell you, I wanted to put it down for fear of nightmares with 6-foot tall praying mantises, but I couldn’t it was so interesting! Austin, our narrator, and self-proclaimed historian is a confused teenager in love with the girl-next-door…
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The Impossible Knife of Memory
I’ll start by saying I read this book from cover to cover over a 12-hour time span – I couldn’t put it down. I’m familiar with Laurie Halse Anderson, but mostly for her historical fiction works, I’ve never read Speak or Wintergirls, but I think I’m going to have to…
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Belle Epoque
Maude Pichon has high hopes when she runs away from her small village for the dazzling lights of Bohemian Paris. But she’s in for a rude awakening when she runs out of money much faster than she anticipated and begins looking for work. She is answers an advertisement in the newspaper…
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Paper Covers Rock
Paper Covers Rock written by Jenny Hubbard reminded me of another book I read called The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LeBan. It has a similar feel with a male main character at a boarding school where secrets are being kept about a horrible situation that has occurred. Without giving too…
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The Real Boy
There’s been a lot of chatter about The Real Boy by Anne Ursu in the past few months and I was curious myself to find out what the story was all about. A glittering city called Asteri was saved from the plague by the magic of the island and the…
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Al Capone Does My Homework
Gennifer Choldenko has done it again with a cast of characters living on a island with the most dangerous criminals of the time. Al Capone Does My Homework is the third in the series of books about Moose, his sister Natalie, their family and friends, and of course Al Capone…