As most of the world knows by now, Philip Roth has announced that he is retiring as a novelist. Roth is one of a very select group who can be considered for title of the greatest American novelist, and his list of awards is impressive, but I don’t want to write yet another obituary of [...]
Last Tuesday, right before the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend, I had the opportunity to booktalk to the three 11th grade English class sections at my school. During each period I talked about 5 books, then asked the students to share their recent favorites with each other. We left the last 10-15 minutes of the period [...]
Thank you to Angela, all of our reviewers, and our readers for the warm welcome to this blog. I thought it might be a good idea to start this relaunch by setting myself up for immediate backlash by trying to answer the impossible question of what exactly we mean by “Adult Books 4 Teens.” The phrase has two [...]
Adult Books 4 Teens began its life as the Adult Books for High School Students print column in SLJ, which provided 15-20 reviews a month. Two years ago the print column was replaced by this blog, which continued to provide 3-4 reviews a week, with the benefit of added context. Starting today, though, AB4T is [...]
This Wednesday evening, the National Book Award winners will be announced in a grand ceremony at Cipriani in New York City. I went to the NBA site to refresh myself on just how the awards work.“The National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation.” [...]
I first became aware of The White Forest at a Simon & Schuster preview where its editor spoke about her passion for this book. She called it her Night Circus. You can see Adam McOmber speak about his work in the book trailer, and The White Forest made The Book Smugglers’ Top 10 Most Highly Anticipated SFF [...]
Every night Minou leaves her room for the lighthouse tower, where she knits as long as she can stay awake, as long as her cold hands can manage. The Vanishing Act has a subtle magic, while being at the same time down-to-earth and philosophical. This is Mette Jakobsen‘s first novel, and it is not quite [...]
Last week I attended an AAP Book Buzz (that’s the Association of American Publishers). This is a twice-annual event at which publishers introduce upcoming adult titles. It is a gold mine for me, as you can imagine, as I work to tease out the adult books with potential teen appeal. I thought it would be [...]
Dan Josefson’s debut is a good recommendation for teens who enjoy puzzling out unreliable narrators, who enjoy boarding school depictions, and those who like reading about troubled teens. Not to mention troubled adults! That’s Not a Feeling is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick (scroll down to find it), and The Atlantic [...]
Simon Lelic‘s latest thriller presents readers with a near future Britain in which the government has gained too much power in the name of national security. (I reviewed Lelic’s first book, A Thousand Cuts, back in 2010. Quite a powerful novel about bullying.) Read an extract from The Facility here. LELIC, Simon. The Facility. 341p. [...]
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