Angela Carstensen
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Alternative Fiction: New Takes on Anne Frank, Jane Austen
Jillian Cantor has taken Anne Frank’s Diary of A Young Girl and written an alternate fiction in which Margot, Anne’s older sister, did not die in Bergen-Belsen after all. Instead, she survives and makes her way to Philadelphia. But, in a way, she is still in hiding. Margot has changed her name, hidden her Jewish faith, and [...]
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler’s new book actually came out in May, but this is definitely a case of better late than never. The premise of the book is terrific, but it is the voice that makes it extraordinary. Rosemary, lively, wisecracking, too smart for her own good, is our narrator. She starts in the middle — [...]
Longbourn
Jane Austen lovers are in for quite a treat. Oh wait, make that Jane Austen lovers and Downton Abbey fans. Oh yes, buy multiple copies because Longbourn has arrived at last. Imagine that among the Bennet family servants there is one just about the same age as Elizabeth. Sarah is a hard worker, solid and [...]
A House in the Sky
This read was so absorbing there were times I had to wonder if I could be objective enough to review the book. There is no doubt in my mind that teens will find it appealing, but it will also push their boundaries. Lindhout begins with glimpses of a childhood that could make for a dysfunctional [...]
Community and Poverty
We review two books today, both set in very specific communities overshadowed by poverty and tragedy. Let’s start with Men We Reaped, a memoir by Jesmyn Ward. Ward’s fierce, poetic debut novel, Salvage the Bones, won the National Book Award and a 2012 Alex Award. It follows a pregnant teenage girl and her family through [...]
Women’s Fiction
Am I going out on a limb to suggest that teens read what readers’ advisory librarians refer to as “women’s fiction”? I don’t think so. Whether it’s Danielle Steele, Joshilyn Jackson, Alice Hoffman, or a newcomer like Vanessa Diffenbaugh and her wonderful debut, The Language of Flowers, teen readers are curious about the lives of adults, [...]
The Different Shades of Horror
I am writing this on the Sunday evening of a weekend during which the movie “Insidious: Chapter 2″ made $41 million dollars at the box office. Tomorrow evening “Sleepy Hollow” premieres on Fox and CBS airs the finale of the first season of “Under the Dome”. “The Walking Dead” is on the cover of this [...]
Speculative Fiction
Baba Yaga is a witch of Russian folklore, and Toby Barlow bewitches with his new novel — our starred reviewof the day. His first, Sharp Teeth, was a 2009 Alex Award winner, a story of werewolves in L.A. told entirely in verse. Babayaga is (mostly) straight prose, and offers quite a combination of genres–spy thriller, [...]
Tattoos, a Funeral Home, and a Cat Named Bob
Three new memoirs make the most of teen-friendly subject matter. First, a celebrity memoir by Don Ed Hardy, the man who helped bring tattoo art into the mainstream. Hardy knew from the age of 10, when he was using colored pencils to give his friends “tattoos,” what he wanted to do with his life. He [...]
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