Henry Cole’s Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad (see the Review of the Week, by Betty Carter) presented us with some very complicated questions. It’s a terrific and intriguing book, a wordless, pencil-illustrated tale of a young girl feeding and protecting a person hiding behind the cornstalks in her family’s barn; soldiers and a [...]
Review: Never Fall Down
By on October 19, 2012
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick. Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins. 2012. Review copy from publisher.
The Plot: Cambodia, 1975. Arn, eleven, lives with his sisters and brother. The family is poor, yes, but they are close and have each other.
The are about to lose even that.
The Khmer Rouge seize power. Arn and his [...]
Review: The FitzOsbornes at War
By on October 16, 2012
The FitzOsbornes at War, the Montmaray Journals, Book III by Michelle Cooper. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2012. Sequel to Sequel to A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile. Reviewed from ARC from publisher.
The Plot: Life in Great Britain during World War II, as told by Sophie FitzOsborne. The FitzOsborne story began in the mid 1930s in A Brief History of [...]
The Formula for Murder
By on October 12, 2012
Victorian newspaper reporter Nellie Bly is at it again in Carol McCleary’s latest. Her investigations began in The Alchemy of Murder, and continued last year in The Illusion of Murder (see the AB4T review here). In The Formula for Murder she is joined by none other than H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde and Conan Doyle.
Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon I had the [...]
Review: The Diviners
By on September 17, 2012
The Diviners by Libba Bray. Little, Brown. 2012. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. Series website.
The Post: New York City, 1926, is the best place in the world to be! At least, according to Evie O’Neill, who — get this — has been punished by her parents by being sent away from home to New York City [...]
Review: The Dark Unwinding
By on September 14, 2012
The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron. Scholastic. 2012. Review copy from publisher.
The Plot: June, 1852. England. Orphaned Katherine Tulman owes everything to her Aunt Alice. Not in a good way. When Katherine was left orphaned, Alice was the one who took in her late husband’s niece. Aunt Alice makes it known that in every possible way [...]
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 [...]
Review: Jasper Jones
By on August 21, 2012
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Review copy from publisher.
The Plot: 1965 Australia. Charlie Bucktin, 13, is reading a book on a hot summer night when there is a knock on his window. It is Jasper Jones, the town “bad boy,” and he needs Charlie’s [...]
Award-winning YA Author Mollie Hunter Dead at 90
By on August 20, 2012
Mollie Hunter, whose novels for young readers won accolades on both sides of the ocean, died on July 31 in Inverness, Scotland. She was 90.
Review: Okay For Now
By on August 16, 2012
Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt. Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. My review of the ARC. Audiobook: Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group. Narrated by Lincoln Hoppe. 2011. Listened from copy from publisher.
The Plot: The late 1960s. Doug Swieteck’s father has moved his family to stupid Marysville in upstate New York. [...]
