Jaycee Dugard’s memoir was an instant bestseller, and its teen appeal is obvious — Dugard was a teen for half of the time she was in captivity, and teens enjoy reading sensational, true stories. It is especially haunting that writing a bestselling book was on a list of goals she made while in captivity. Also [...]
Writing books from a wolf’s point of view isn’t easy, but that is Dorothy Hearst’s goal in her trilogy, The Wolf Chronicles. Hearst writes, “The biggest challenge was getting the level of anthropomorphism right. If I were to be completely accurate in depicting how a wolf perceives the world, the book would have been impenetrable for [...]
Lucette Lagnado’s new memoir about coming to the United States from Cairo has been garnering a lot of attention. The New York Times alone published two reviews: “Leaving Egypt, Finding Brooklyn” and “Pretty Girls, Seemingly Pursued by an Evil Eye”. In a way, Lagnado offers two coming-of-age memoirs in one, both her mother’s story and [...]
Maphead is the perfect choice for teen map nerds, and it might just be charming enough for those with a more general interest in geography. As Ken Jennings points out, the National Geographic Bee has 5 million participants annually. 13,000 schools hold mini-bees every fall. Where some might questions the future of maps now that [...]
Roland Merullo’s latest novel is far from your typical coming-of-age novel. Consider the conclusion of Carolyn See’s Washington Post review, “But this isn’t just another story about an unfortunate girl escaping terrible circumstances or a gothic mystery about missing children, and it’s even better than I can make it sound. Set as it is in New [...]
Mary McGarry Morris’s latest is a coming of age novel set in a small New England town. Morris is perhaps best known for Songs in Ordinary Time (Viking, 1995), which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 1997. It too includes a young teen afraid to tell the dark truth about an adult in his life. (Although [...]
I’m sure we are all familiar with Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction, which is very popular with teens and especially with girls. The Other Boleyn Girl (Touchstone, 2001) and sequels are still her most popular books in my library. The Women of the Cousins’ War is Gregory’s first nonfiction title. It all began when she realized [...]
The Magicians won Lev Grossman both the Alex Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. While this sequel may not be as perfectly attuned to teen readers, his fans will hardly mind. By the way, when it comes to books with teen appeal, the John W. Campbell Award is a good [...]
Move over Dan Brown, Simon Toyne has arrived! You have to love a novel where a major plot point hinges on apple seeds found in the stomach of a corpse. Not just apple seeds, but apple seeds inscribed with a message. (How does that work, exactly? Doesn’t it make you curious??) And not just a [...]
This brave memoir from a young first author is, in its own way, a coming of age story. Harrison was forced to come of age under the most painful of circumstances. Missing was named one of the top ten memoirs for fall by Publishers Weekly. HARRISON, Lindsay. Missing: A Memoir. 223p. Scribner. 2011. Tr $25. [...]
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