The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Sheinmel. Knopf, an imprint of Random House. 2010. The Plot: Connelly Sternin, a junior, looks around her high school and sees it, her life, as a fairy tale. Connelly is Rapunzel, living in a Manhattan high rise, hiding behind studying and SAT Prep. She keeps herself isolated, not just [...]
You by Charles Benoit. Harper Teen. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher The Plot: You. The Good: You are you. You are Kyle Chase. OK, enough of writing in the style of You! Told in second person, Benoit pulls you into the story, makes the story about you and your choices and your friendships. Your slacking [...]
The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams. Chronicle Books. 2010. Review copy from ALA Midwinter. The Plot: Sunday morning. Evie, sixteen, is delivering newspapers and hoping to run into Jonah Luks. Jonah…the college drop out who, on Sundays, goes to the woods and bags up the dead animals so the people living in upscale Hokepe [...]
Illyria by Elizabeth Hand. Viking, an imprint of Penguin. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from conference. The Plot: Yonkers, New York, the 1970s. Rogan and Madeline Tierney are first cousins, the youngest son and youngest daughter of twins. They are best friends, deeply connected and attuned to each other. Their great-grandmother was the famous actress Madeline [...]
Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett. Candlewick Press. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Plum, almost fourteen, wants something – something more. She is full of anger and desire, seeing the world only through the lens of her own experience. Her world is small, home and school. She expects her parents and two older brothers [...]
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund. HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins. 2009. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: Astrid Llewelyn, sixteen, is minding her own business, making out with her cute boyfriend, when they are attacked by killer unicorns. Turns out, all the “you are descended from mighty unicorn hunters” and “unicorns aren’t friendly they are monsters [...]
![Bamboo_People_cover_300[1]](http://blogs.slj.com/teacozy/files/2010/07/Bamboo_People_cover_3001-150x150.jpg "Bamboo_People_cover_300[1]")
Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins. Charlesbridge. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Present day Burma. Chiko, fifteen and bookish, responds to an ad for teachers and discovers it’s a scam by the military to force teenage boys into the army. Making it even worse is that his father was arrested four months ago [...]
Stranded by J.T. Dutton. HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: With great reluctance, fifteen year old Kelly Louise and her mother are leaving Des Moines for her mother’s hometown of Heaven, Ohio. Kelly Louise — named for Tina Louise, of Gilligan’s Island fame — tells of being dragged back [...]
Recent Comments