British author Morgan McCarthy’s debut novel centers on two children, a brother and sister living in an ancient Welsh country mansion, isolated, neglected by their mother and wondering at the mystery of what happened to their father. As they grow up, they confront generations of family secrets.
Chapter one is available on Barnes & Noble.
* MCCARTHY, Morgan. [...]
The Other Half of Me
By on September 24, 2012
American Gypsy: A Memoir
By on September 19, 2012
Oksana Marfioti (née Kopylenko) has succeeded in writing a funny and creative coming-of-age memoir, one that encompasses the immigrant experience, an inside look at Roma culture, and one doozy of a dysfunctional family. (Her father moves to the U.S. hoping to play with B.B. King but ends up telling fortunes and performing exorcisms. Quite lucrative in L.A., [...]
We Sinners
By on September 18, 2012
Hanna Pylväinen’s debut novel is about a family that belongs to the (very conservative) Laestadian Lutheran church.
In a Publishers Weekly interview given at BookExpo in early June, Hanna made it clear that her book is not part of “a national conversation around fundamentalism that skews to sensationalism. It’s too easy to forget these are rational [...]
The Bartender’s Tale
By on September 17, 2012
Ivan Doig’s new novel graces AB4T as the starred review of the week. Recently, I wrote about the number of western novels with teen appeal, and mentioned Doig’s The Whistling Season, a 2007 Alex Award winner. The Bartender’s Tale returns to the rural setting of that novel — Two Medicine Country, Montana — where once [...]
Such a Rush
By on September 13, 2012
The marketing tag line for Jennifer Echols’ new novel is “A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.” There are quite a few teenage girls who will fall for that one!
I am going to throw up my hands and admit that I’m not sure whether this should be considered [...]
The Future of History
By on September 12, 2012
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith:
Authentic students of history recognize that what is past doesn’t just stand: it shifts and changes shape as interpreters armed with the present look back. And those same interpreters look back from a landscape shaped by that same set of events, circumstances and changes created by that history.
Stan Mack, [...]
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
By on September 11, 2012
In his latest outing, Graham Joyce offers up the story of a 15 year-old girl lured away by fairies. What is so interesting about this particular fairy tale is how grounded it is in English village life and the characters involved. The effects of both Tara’s disappearance and her sudden reappearance 20 years later are [...]
The Yellow Birds
By on September 10, 2012
This week’s starred review is a powerful debut novel about the war in Iraq. Check out Kevin Powers’ website for lists of the honors and praise The Yellow Birds has already received, even though it releases tomorrow.
The author himself joined the army in 1997 at age 17, and he writes with firsthand knowledge about young men [...]
The Distance Between Us
By on September 7, 2012
In her new memoir, Reyna Grande, author of Dancing with Butterflies and Across a Hundred Mountains, tells the story of illegally immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico, and the difficulties being apart for long periods of time caused her family. The Los Angeles Times calls it “the “Angela’s Ashes” of the modern Mexican immigrant experience,”and praises [...]
God Save the Queen
By on September 6, 2012
Kate Locke’s debut is an alternative history that combines paranormal, steampunk, romance and fantasy. As the author put it in an interview with USA Today, “My world is an alternate world where vampires and werewolves are a result of the Black Death, and where World Wars I and II never happened. Hitler never amounted to [...]
A Hero’s Revival
By on September 5, 2012
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith:
Ben McCool and Mario Guevara have respected creative reputations in the superhero comics world. Turning now to a legendary hero—remembered for his humanity as an essential aspect of his heroism—this newly teamed pair also brings their experiences with film to a complex project:
Retain an historically [...]
Little Century
By on September 4, 2012
This week’s starred review, Anna Keesey’s debut, incorporates the traditional elements of the classic western or frontier novel. This is a genre that has been well-represented in adult books with teen appeal — I’m thinking of Alex Award-winning novels such as Ivan Doig’s The Whistling Season and Thomas Maltman’s The Night Birds. Last year’s The Little [...]
Adult Books 4 Teens: August 2012 Reviews
By on September 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
Fiction
BRUNT, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. 368p. Dial. 2012. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-679-64419-4. LC 2011027932.
Adult/High School–June Elbus, 14, begins her story in late December 1986, as her mother drives her and her older sister, Greta, to their Uncle Finn’s Manhattan apartment so he can continue painting their portrait. Finn is a famous artist dying of AIDS, and June is in love with him. She treasures their every moment together, especially their trips to The Cloisters. He even [...]
Adult Books 4 Teens: September 2012 Reviews
By on September 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
Fiction
ANGELELLA, J. R. Zombie. 352p. Soho. 2012. pap. $15. ISBN 978-1-61695-088-0. LC 2012003803.
Adult/High School–High school freshman Jeremy Barker lives his life according to the rules of survival he’s learned thanks to his obsession with zombie movies: avoid eye contact; keep quiet; forget the past; lock and load; and, most important, fight to survive. Whether dealing with the casual violence inflicted by bullies at his Catholic school, his father’s nightly disappearances, or his estranged mother’s addiction to painkillers, he always [...]
Arab Spring Dreams
By on August 30, 2012
This collection of essays gives teen readers a chance to hear about life in the Middle East and Africa straight from writers (all 25 years old or younger) who live there.
For more about AIC’s (American Islamic Congress) Dream Deferred Essay Contest, check out the contest rules & guidelines. The judges “are looking for essays that [...]
A Taste of Essentials
By on August 29, 2012
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith:
Philosophy and comics are much more common bedfellows than might be expected; take, for instance, that philosophy was Art Spiegelman’s academic choice although his parents had promoted dentistry as a good choice. Margreet de Heer studied the life of the mind for years within academia, but presents the path [...]
The Red Chamber
By on August 28, 2012
Pauline Chen’s new novel is a great recommendation for historical fiction or romance-loving teens wishing to expand their horizons. Chen retells and dramatically shortens the Chinese novel Hong Lou Meng, often translated as Dream of the Red Chamber, which includes the most famous love triangle in Chinese literature. (For more about the original, see this [...]
In the Shadow of the Banyan
By on August 27, 2012
Vaddey Ratner’s debut novel is being widely hailed as a new classic, likened to Loung Ung’s memoir, First They Killed My Father and another excellent debut from earlier this year, Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron. It seems likely to end up on summer reading lists and classroom syllabi.
Accordingly, Simon & Schuster has provided a wonderful [...]
Where’d you go, Bernadette
By on August 24, 2012
Maria Semple honed her comic timing as a writer for Mad About You, Ellen, and Arrested Development. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the best kind of summer read – funny and bitingly satirical, yet centered on a warm, loving mother/daughter relationship. And the plot moves quickly, thanks to a wonderful variety of narratives and voices.
One [...]
Blackout
By on August 23, 2012
What began with Feed and continued with Deadline, now concludes with Blackout. Oh, and there’s Countdown, a novella that goes back to the origins of the zombie plague. And another titled San Diego 2014, which takes place during Comic-Con. Seems like Grant is hardly finished with this world!
There is a fun piece on the Orbit website, [...]
