You know what’s hard about managing a book review blog? Mailing away those books that you know you would love — if you only had the time. So today’s theme is books I wish I had kept for myself to review. (I’m only half joking!) First up, The Fort of Nine Towers. This book is a [...]
Thoughts on Alex: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
By on March 1, 2013
Thoughts on Alex: Caring is Creepy and Girlchild
By on February 14, 2013
Review: Listening for Madeleine
By on January 1, 2013
Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices by Leonard S. Marcus. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2012. Review copy from publisher. It’s About: Madeleine L’Engle, beloved author of A Wrinkle In Time (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1962). The Good: How to write a biography of Madeleine L’Engle, especially when so many people [...]
Review: Moonbird
By on December 17, 2012
Moonbird: A Year On the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2012. Review copy from publisher. Finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. It’s About: B95 is a rufa red knot, first tagged in Argentina in 1995. Since then, B95 has been seen again and [...]
Roundup: Vaguely Paranormal
By on December 12, 2012
Paranormal fantasy, which is to say fiction with a fantastic angle, but not set in a secondary world, with at least one character who is not human or not, technically, alive, and a romance plot or subplot, continues to go strong. (Even if we, as adults who have seen vast quantities of formulaic fiction pass [...]
Weekly Reviews: Fiction Set Around the World
By on December 11, 2012
This week we present three literary novels set outside the United States — in Mexico, Cambodia and England — that make great suggestions for mature teen readers.
Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Mexico, where Down the Rabbit Hole takes place. At just 75 pages this novella is a powerful experiment in voice, one that would [...]
Weekly Reviews: Fiction Set Around the World
By on December 11, 2012
This week we present three literary novels set outside the United States — in Mexico, Cambodia and England — that make great suggestions for mature teen readers. Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Mexico, where Down the Rabbit Hole takes place. At just 75 pages this novella is a powerful experiment in voice, one that would [...]
My Book of Life By Angel
By on December 7, 2012
My Book of Life by Angel, Martine Leavitt
Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar Straus Giroux, September 2012
Reviewed from ARC
A four star book from an author whose last book netted an NBA finalist nod?
Yes please!
But just to put it right out there — Leavitt’s latest is nothing like Keturah and Lord Death, with its mythopoeic elements and historical/fantastical [...]
My Book of Life By Angel
By on December 7, 2012
My Book of Life by Angel, Martine Leavitt Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar Straus Giroux, September 2012 Reviewed from ARC A four star book from an author whose last book netted an NBA finalist nod? Yes please! But just to put it right out there — Leavitt’s latest is nothing like Keturah and Lord Death, with [...]
Teen Lit Publishing Experts Reveal Recipes for Bestsellers
By on November 28, 2012 1 Comment
At the Women’s National Book Association NYC chapter’s event, “The Making of a Young Adult Bestseller,” writers, editors, publishers, and agents came together to discuss the key components of a hit YA novel.
