September 18, 2013

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Review: Plague In The Mirror

Plague in the Mirror by Deborah Noyes. Candlewick Press. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publishers. The Plot: May is spending the summer in Florence with family friends. It’s not just a great chance to be in Florence, it’s also a way to be away from home, away from Vermont, away from her friends, and away [...]

Candy Crush

Hello, my name is Liz, and I’m obsessed with Candy Crush. For those of you who aren’t playing . . . . Candy Crush Saga is a game you can play on your phone or computer. It’s one of those “match 3 objects” games, (in this case candies) with each board having a different set of challenges (get a [...]

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad YA Book?

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad YA Book?

Kelly Jensen of Stacked has started writing for Book Riot and her latest, What Are Grown-Ups Afraid Of In YA Books, does not disappoint. Kelly has a nice, nuanced post that points to several recent examples of adults fretting over the books teen read. Read the whole post; I particularly liked “when you fear the [...]

Review: Dark Triumph

Dark Triumph: His Fair Assassins, Book II by Robin LaFevers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Nantes, Brittany, 1489. Lady Sybella is deep in danger and intrigue. Part of it is because she has been trained by the convent of Saint Mortain to be an assassin. Part of it is [...]

Flashback July 2009

And now, a flashback to what I was reading in July 2009. Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd HerdEdited by Holly Black & Cecil Castellucci. From my review: “In this collection of short stories, we meet all sorts of people who are interested in something to the point of obsession. Interested to the point where it seems [...]

Review: The Winter Prince

The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein. Atheneum. 1993. Read ebook edition from Open Road Media, 2013. Personal copy. The Plot: Medraut is the oldest son of King Artos of Britain, but he can never be Prince. He can never be King. He can never be his father’s heir. He can never have what his younger [...]

Disability in Kidlit Blog

Disability in Kidlit Blog

Add this to your “must read” pile: Disability in Kidlit. I should have blogged about this sooner, but I was preparing for ALA and time got away from me. (Note: that will be my excuse for the next few months, OK?) From the Disability in Kidlit website: “Throughout July 2013, this blog will feature posts [...]

ALA: ARCs

One of the panel discussions I was on at ALA was All About ARCs:  “Librarians may have heard of Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs), but do they actually know how to acquire or use them? Why do publishers create these unsaleable copies? Have you seen them at used bookstores, Friends book sales, and should they really be there? [...]

TV Review: Twisted

Twisted, ABC Family. TV Series. The Plot: Danny Desai, sixteen, is returning to his home town after being away for five years. All he wants is for things to be like they were before: live with his Mom, go to high school, reconnect with his two best friends, Lacey and Jo. The problem is, time [...]

Review: Pet Sounds

Pet Sounds: New and Improved Stories From the QC Report by Quinn Cummings. Quinella Media USA. 2013. Review copy from author. It’s summer, so time for another “vacation reads” book. It’s About: Pets. Cats, dogs, rabbits, even a lizard. The Good: Let me be honest. I am not a pet person by nature. I am, instead, [...]

Flashback July 2011

And now, a Flashback to what I was reading and reviewing in July 2011! A Lesson in Secrets, a Maisie Dobbs novel by Jacqueline Winspear. Harper Collins. 2011. From my review: “Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and private investigator, is recruited in 1932 to go undercover for the British Secret Service. Her assignment? Get a job as [...]

Review: Wait For You

Wait For You by J. Lynn (who also writes as Jennifer L. Armentrout). William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins. 2013. Personal copy. The Plot: Avery Morgansten is starting college away from home, away from family. Not just away; she’s also chosen a college in West Virginia that she knows will have no one from [...]

ALA: New Adult

ALA: New Adult

And SexyTimes was had by all! Um, no, not really, but based on the twitter stream for the New Adult Conversation Starter that Sophie Brookover, Kelly Jensen and myself did (Twitter hashtag #ALA13NA), I apparently used that term a lot. As a recap, the three of us did a Conversation Starter on New Adult Fiction at [...]

SummerTeen

Don’t forget to sign up for SLJ’s SummerTeen! It’s July 24, 2013 11:00 am – 5:00 pm EST.   Last year, I attended this virtual, online event and let me tell you, it’s fun to be able to participate online. No travel! No security checks! No living out of a suitcase! The line up is at [...]

Can We Blame Fifty Shades?

Oh, here is something that I missed while away at ALA! First, on Wednesday, June 26, GalleyCat reported that “Where The Wild Things Are” Revisited on KickStarter. GalleyCat quotes the two men behind the project as saying that “We have also been very careful not to impinge on Mr Sendak’s copyright and have taken the necessary [...]

Film Review: Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies (2013), based on the book of the same name by Isaac Marion. Rated PG-13. The Plot: Poor R. He’s having a bit of a crisis. Wanting to connect to those around him, but just not able to. It’s part of the problem of being a zombie. Then he falls for Julie, a human [...]

Crash and Burn, Part II

Yesterday, I talked about what I liked about Crash and Burn. Today, I’ll talk about what I didn’t like. In one word: sluts. Crash is so perfectly described, so fully drawn — it is a great thing, to create out of nothing a fictional character who is so “real.” So real, that I got sick [...]

Review: Crash and Burn

Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan. Balzer & Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins. 2013. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: On April 21, 2008, Steven “Crash” Crashinsky saved the lives of every one in his high school — student, teachers, staff — when he somehow stopped his classmate David “Burn” Burnett from blowing up [...]

Review: Aristotle and Dante

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Simon & Schuster BFYR. 2012. Copy from library. Printz Honor Book. The Plot: Summer, 1987. Angel Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza is fifteen, and it’s the start of another lonely, hot summer in El Paso. Bored, he goes to the local swimming even though [...]

Flashback June 2006

Flashback June 2006

A flashback to what I was reviewing in June 2006: Poetry Friday: The Geography of Girlhood by Kirsten Smith. From my review: “Penny is the understudy in the school play and when her big moment comes — they end up cancelling the play. When she gets her first kiss — she faints.But it’s also serious, [...]