The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Younger Readers, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. Middle grade. The Plot: Christmas Eve. Three small children are hurried out into a waiting car. Kate, 4, promises her mother to keep her younger brother and sister safe. It is [...]
The Lucky Kind by Alyssa B. Sheinmel. Knopf, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: Nick Brandt, 16, doesn’t know that answering the phone will shake up his world. A strange man asks for “Sheffman Brandt,” knowing Nick’s father’s name but not knowing he goes by Rob, his middle name. A [...]
Tighter by Adele Griffin. Knopf Books for Younger Readers, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Reviewed from copy from publisher. The Plot: Jamie, seventeen, is spending her summer as an au pair at ritzy Little Bly, Rhode Island, taking care of eleven year old Isa McRae while Isa’s dad works in Hong Kong. The only [...]
Real Live Boyfriends (Yes, boyfriends, plural. If my life weren’t complicated, I wouldn’t be Ruby Oliver) by E. Lockhart. Delacorte, an imprint of Random House. 2010. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: Ruby Oliver is now a senior and has a real! live! boyfriend! Everything is terrific, until Noel goes away to visit his brother [...]
Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton. Random House. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Silla sits in the cemetery, a book of magic spells before her. Magic sounds crazy. Spells requiring blood sounds insane. For Silla, crazy and insane are words she takes seriously, ever since she came home to find the bodies of [...]
Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever. by Caissie St. Onge . Ember, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Review from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Meet Jane Jones. Mild mannered high school student who is secretly a vampire! A mild mannered vampire, that is. If you think being a vampire means you’re one of the cool, [...]
Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell. Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House. 2009. Review copy from publisher. Book website. The Plot: Iris and her best friend, Collette, are fourteen. It’s summer, a hot, humid Louisiana summer; the last summer of childhood. They play some of the make believe games of their childhood, but this year [...]
Rosie and Skate by Beth Ann Bauman. Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House. 2009. Review copy from publisher. The Plot: Rosie, 15, and Skate, 16, are left alone in a falling-down Victorian when their dad, a drunk, serves three and a half months for shoplifting. Their cousin Angie moves in to help out. Rosie, the [...]
The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango. Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: At age seven, Virginia, an indigenas living in an Andean village in Ecuador, is taken from her family to be a servant of a mestizo couple. Her parents, poor tenant [...]
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King. Alfred A. Knopf Books, an imprint of Random House. 2010. Review copy from publisher. Printz Honor. The Plot: Vera Dietz, 18, hates and loves Charlie Kahn, her dead ex-best friend. Hates, because he died. Because before he died, he stopped being her friend, started hanging out with [...]
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