Book Review: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

(img source: goodreads) Star Ratings: Characters: ***** (5 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: *** (3 stars) Writing: **** (4 stars) Overall: **** (4 stars) Age range recommendation: 12 and up. (Dark but not scary, though there’s some troubling emotional and domestic abuse.) Be it known that I read an ARC of this book,

Book Review: 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

Toot-tootle-oo! (That’s that medieval trumpet sound of oh-hey-big-news, but you’ll have to imagine it sounding more impressive than the phonetic sounds I just typed out…)  The National Book Award’s long list for Young People’s Literature has been announced!  I’ve read three of the books already: Skink – No Surrender, Brown Girl Dreaming (I reviewed it here), and 100 Sideways Miles.  I really

Book Review: Conversion by Katherine Howe

Star Ratings for Conversion: Characters: **** (4 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: **** (4 stars) Writing: ***** (5 stars) Overall: **** (4 stars) Age range recommendation: 12 and up This YA novel by Catherine Howe (author of The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane) is about quite a few subjects I like. Catholic school! Teenage

Summer Camp Rec: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (moving up from Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Last post, I recommended Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern to anyone who loved The Fault In Our Stars and wanted a similar book to read this summer. But how about something for younger readers who are into faster, sillier books? There’s frequently a disconnect between the kids themselves and the Parents On A Deadline (gotta

Book Review: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Star Ratings (out of 5): Characters: **** (4 stars) Character Development: ***** (5 stars) Plot: **** (4 stars) Writing: **** (4 stars) Overall: **** (4 stars) Age range recommendation: 13 and up. Pointe is Brandy Colbert’s debut novel: a realistic YA story focusing on a kidnapping. And ballet. And eating disorders. And high school. It’s

Book Review: Talker 25 by Joshua McCune

Star Ratings (out of 5): Characters: *** (3 stars) Character development: *** (3 stars) Plot: ***1/2 (3 1/2 stars) Writing: **1/2 (2 1/2 stars) Overall: *** (3 stars) Age range recommendation: 12 and up In the not-too-distant future, America has a dragon problem.  No one knows how or why they arrived, but the enormous creatures

Valentine’s Day Special: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Daniel Handler, please be my Valentine.  There’s not a single damn thing you’ve written that I don’t love.  This includes the new picture book 29 Myths On The Swinster Pharmacy, which was authored by some suspicious bloke named Lemony Snicket. (Snicket writes an awful lot like Handler.)  But today is Valentine’s Day, so here is

Some long overdue love for Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

What took me so long to read Their Eyes Were Watching God? This is one of those books I think a lot of us read in high school, but I never did. I’d occasionally think “hm, I should read that,” when I was cooped up in the university library, but there was always something more academic

Four New Books from HarperCollins: The Bookshelf Pirate Has Dinner With Authors

People keep making the mistake of letting me out into public. A pirate on cold medicine in a restaurant full of book people: this situation had the potential to end in broken glass, spoiled endings, and elaborate apologies. But, for reasons which continue to befuddle yet flatter me, my coworkers and other literary grown-ups keep

High School Books Part III: The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

Star Ratings Characters: ***** (5 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: **** (4 stars) Writing: ***** (5 stars) Overall: ***** (5 stars) Age recommendation: 16+ The Basic Eight was definitely my favorite of the three high school books I read last week.  In fact, I think it might be my favorite novel set in a high