This past December, YALSA announced the shortlist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. Edited to add: The Award went to Seraphina by Rachel Hartman! You can get more information on the Morris Award at the YALSA website. I’ve had the chance to read and review all the books, and let me say, it’s going to [...]
Review: Love And Other Perishable Items
By on January 17, 2013
Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo. Alfred A. Knopf, Random House. 2012. Review copy from publisher. YALSA Morris Award Finalist. The Plot: Amelia, fifteen, is in love with Chris. Chris is her co-worker at the local supermarket. Chris is twenty-one years old. Chris is finishing up university, trying to get over Michaela, figuring out what [...]
Review: After the Snow
By on January 11, 2013
After the Snow by S. D. Crockett. Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. 2012. Review copy from publisher. Finalist for the YASLA Morris Award. The Plot: Willo is watching and listening and waiting. Willo was born after the weather changed, after the seas dried up and the snow kept coming and coming, and people got [...]
YALSA Morris Award Shortlist
By on December 9, 2012
YALSA has announced the shortlist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award.
From YALSA’s the Hub, the five finalists are:
Wonder Show, written by Hannah Barnaby, published by Published by Houghton Mifflin, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Love and Other Perishable Items, written by Laura Buzo, published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s [...]
More Roundup (Debut Style!)
By on November 13, 2012
Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone, Kat Rosenfield
Dutton, May 2012
Reviewed from ARC
Buzz and anticipation, impressive writing, and a whole that ends up not quite hitting it out of the park — haven’t we heard this story before?
Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone has some really magnificent sentence level writing. Some of the best out there [...]
Middle Age Girl Power: Grave Mercy vs The Wicked and the Just
By on November 6, 2012
Grave Mercy and The Wicked and the Just are, in so many ways, polar opposites.
But how often do we see YA books set in the Middle Ages? Not very, which makes it almost impossible not to think of these in a compare and contrast essay. So that’s what you get.
Both feature strong female heroines, well [...]
Flying High: The Improbable True Tale of Debut Novelist John Corey Whaley
By on May 1, 2012
It was a surprisingly warm day in Dallas as John Corey Whaley stood at the American Library Association’s (ALA) January midwinter meeting still “in complete shock,” looking like a guy who’d just hit the daily double.
Who could blame him?
