Today we look at three historical novels about very strange families. Taking things chronologically, first up is Sarah Dunant’s Blood & Beauty, about the very real, and very twisted Borgias of Renaissance Italy. Wikipedia lists among their crimes “adultery, simony, theft, bribery, and murder (especially by arsenic poisoning).” I quite like that parenthetical at the [...]
Pick of the Day: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
By on August 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
Leonard Peacock has big plans for his 18th birthday….to kill Asher Beal and then commit suicide….This is a difficult, yet powerful, book. Quick’s use of flashbacks, internal dialogue, and interpersonal communication is brilliant.
Pick of the Day: Darius & Twig (Audio)
By on August 27, 2013 Leave a Comment
Darius and Twig both dream of leaving their poor neighborhood for better and safer lives. Narrator Brandon Gill does a great job differentiating between the two boys as they make their way through the obstacles set before them. Be sure to read the review of the audiobook version of Walter Dean Myers’s novel.
Hot title alert: The Bone Season
By on August 26, 2013
The Bone Season is the first in a projected seven-book fantasy series by 21-year-old Samanatha Shannon. Last week it was announced as the first TODAY book club selection. There is a great deal of buzz around this book, and I believe teens will be asking for it. Shannon wrote the book while a student at Oxford. I [...]
Pick of the Day: Train
By on August 26, 2013 Leave a Comment
The book perfectly captures the feeling of riding the rails.
Pick of the Day: A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole (Audio)
By on August 23, 2013 Leave a Comment
Gravity, quasars, the formation of black holes, and the meaning of event horizon are just some of the ideas covered in the impressive scope of Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano’s A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole. Be sure to read the review of the audiobook version.
The Missing File
By on August 23, 2013
I’ve been meaning to post about D.A. Mishani’s The Missing File for several months now, but hadn’t quite figured out what to say. At first, I was looking around for another book to pair it with, in particular another mystery in translation because except for Sweden we don’t seem to get many mysteries from other [...]
‘War Horse’: Novel, Play, Film, and App | Touch and Go
By on August 22, 2013 Leave a Comment
Michael Morpurgo’s poignant ‘War Horse,’ first published as a novel for children, has seen many incarnations. It’s now an interactive, enhanced book for IOS devices. Watercolor illustrations, archival photos, and videos make this a production for both fiction lovers and history buffs.
Pick of the Day: Listen to the Birds (Audio)
By on August 22, 2013 Leave a Comment
The London Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, and several other professional groups give instrumental voice to a wide variety of birds in excerpts from 20 classical pieces in Listen to the Birds. Read the starred review.
On the Come Up and Giveaway
By on August 21, 2013
Although the review of On the Come Up: A Novel Based on a True Story by Hannah Weyer was posted on AB4T several weeks ago, I am reposting today in conjunction with the publication of my interview with the author, which is available in the SLJ Teen Newsletter (and briefly on the SLJ homepage) today. Weyer [...]
Pick of the Day: Secret Pizza Party
By on August 21, 2013 Leave a Comment
Wearing stilts and a trench coat, Raccoon absconds with a stolen pizza.
Marc Anthony Returns, Selena Gomez’s ‘Stars’, and More Zombies | Teens Review Music and Games
By on August 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
Teens review something old (Marc Anthony’s return to his salsa roots), something new (rising star Selena Gomez), and something that just might scare the bejeezus out of you (The Walking Dead: 400 Days).
Pick of the Day: Big Mouth (DVD)
By on August 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
Big Mouth is a quirky, creatively animated short about a girl who his brutally honest. Be sure to read the review of this DVD from National Film Board of Canada..
Explicit Content
By on August 19, 2013
When is a book too sexually explicit to recommend to teens? That’s a question that comes up fairly frequently for our reviewers, and frankly, it’s one that I don’t know the answer to. For the most part it seems to be based on just our gut feelings–something like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous statement that “I [...]
Pick of the Day: ChopChop: The Kids’ Guide to Cooking Real Food with Your Family
By on August 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Recipes for healthy eating with wholesome foods
Pick of the Day: Anna and the Cupcakes (Audio)
By on August 16, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Bari Koral Family Rock Band offers a delightful collection of 10 child-friendly songs in Anna and the Cupcakes. Be sure to read the starred review.
Pick of the Day: Big Test Success (DVD)
By on August 15, 2013 Leave a Comment
The 15 brief episodes in Big Test Success: Motivational Videos for Kids focus on how young children can become successful test takers by learning to relax, maintaining a positive attitude, eating healthy foods and exercising, and realizing that they don’t have to be perfect. Be sure to read the DVD review.
Galatea
By on August 14, 2013
Readers of this blog might be interested to know about a new short story by Madeline Miller called “Galatea.” Miller wrote one of our favorite books of last year, The Song of Achilles. With this story she returns to the world of Greek myth, this time to the story of Pygmalion, which many of us know [...]
Pick of the Day: Fangirl
By on August 14, 2013 Leave a Comment
This charming coming-of-age novel tells the story of a painfully shy teen who prefers the fantasy world of fanfiction to reality.
Pick of the Day: Joshua Dread (Audio)
By on August 13, 2013 Leave a Comment
Find out what happens when Joshua, a sixth grader, becomes “gyfted” with the power of spontaneous combustion in Joshua Dread, a starred audiobook review. Narrator Maxwell Glick perfectly captures the comic antics of author Lee Bacon’s superheroes and villains.
