The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen. Grand Central Publishing. 2013. Personal copy. The Plot: Callie and Kayden grew up in the same small town, but weren’t what you’d call friends. Kayden was the popular football player; Callie was the outcast with no friends. One early summer night, Callie sees Kayden’s father hit [...]
Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon. Random House 2013. Random House Audio 2013. Reviewed from borrowed copy of audiobook. Making this part of my “vacation reads” series, figuring most of my readers who work in schools are on vacation now or soon [...]
A flashback to what I was reading in June 2009: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell In Love by Lauren Tarshis. From my review: “Emma-Jean Lazarus, an astute observer of her fellow seventh graders at William Gladstone Middle School, watches as her friends fuzz over the upcoming dance and worry about what boy they’ll ask. She decides their behavior is [...]
Flora’s Fury: How a Girl of Spirit and a Red Dog Confounded Their Friends, Astounded Their Enemies, and Learned the Importance of Packing Light by Ysabeau S. Wilce. Harcourt, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2012. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. Final book of the trilogy. The Series: Haven’t read this series yet? Then slow down, [...]
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, Random House. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Jeremy Johnson Johnson is haunted by a ghost, and honestly, it’s not that bad. The ghost doesn’t want to hurt Jeremy; far from it. The ghost wants to protect Jeremy! But protect [...]
And now, a look at what I was reading in June 2011: The Lucky Kind by Alyssa B. Sheinmel: “Nick’s life [has been] charmed — lucky, even. He has a wonderful family (put Rob and Nina down in the “pretty great parents in a YA book” category), he lives in a nice apartment in Manhattan [...]
The Moon And More by Sarah Dessen. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: It’s the summer after high school graduation, and everything in Emaline’s life is the same as it ever was. She’s working at her grandmother’s beach rental property business. She’s hanging out with Luke, [...]
Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan. Random House Children’s Books. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: A short story collection from Margo Lanagan. Which means two things: each story is incredibly unique; each is amazingly good. The Good: Here’s the problem: each Margo Lanagan short story is so unique that it’s impossible to easily sum [...]
Flashing back to what I was reviewing in May 2006: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. From my review: “For those of you who have never heard of Cooper’s series, I envy you: there is nothing like falling in love for the first time. And once you read The Dark is Rising, you will [...]
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones. Viking. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. Vacation reads (aka, when I talk about books for grownups and post them before holidays.) It’s About: The designated heir of England dies in a shipwreck; England is plunged into civil war as descendants of [...]
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