Category Archives: By Age Range

Review: Ghost Writers: The Haunting of Lake Lucy by Sandy Deutscher Green

Young Adult/Teen 12-18
Ghost Writers: The Haunting of Lake Lucy by Sandy Deutscher Green

Ghost Writers: The Haunting of Lake Lucy
Sandy Deutscher Green
Monarch Educational Services
Published May 14, 2024

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About Ghost Writers: The Haunting of Lake Lucy

Your new pen pal has a grave secret.

A lakeside summer vacation is just what 13-year-old Jayce needs…except he’s convinced the ghost from his nightmares lives in the creepy house next door. But when he decides to team up with his twin sister to write a letter to the phantom neighbor, he’s shocked when THE GHOST WRITES HIM BACK! Now Jayce must uncover the dark secret of a cursed lake-or remain haunted forever.

Green’s Horror-In-Verse is sure to spook! You’ll be second-guessing the next time you check your mailbox.

My Review

I enjoyed the pairing of suspense and novel-in-verse. The spare verses supported and increased the intensity of the scenes. It added to the eerie feeling of the setting, too.

At different points in the book, a scene might be written in a different format, such as a haiku. I liked that the writing was playful like that and wondered if it might make this an interesting book to use in an upper elementary English Language Arts classroom because it contains examples of different kinds of poetry used within one longer project.

Jayce and his twin sister have an interesting relationship. The shadow of their closeness, probably from when they were younger, still lingers over them, but you sense that they’re growing into separate interests. The story captured that really well.

I enjoyed reading this and definitely think it would make a great addition to a seasonal reading list for fall or Halloween, so you’ll probably see me talking about it again in a few months.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white, fraternal twins.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Jayce encounters what he believes is a ghost haunting a house on Lake Lucy. Strange, inexplicable, and sometimes sinister things happen around the house and lake.

Violent Content
Some brief instances of bullying. Situations of peril. Someone nearly drowns.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Burning Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Burning Crowns (Twin Crowns #3)
Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber
Balzer + Bray
Published April 25, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Burning Crowns

Twin queens Rose & Wren survived the Battle for Anadawn and brought back magic to their kingdom. But danger lurks in Eana’s shadows.

Wren is troubled. Ever since she performed the blood spell on Prince Ansel, her magic has become unruly. Worse, the spell created a link between Wren and the very man she’s trying to forget: Icy King Alarik of Gevra. A curse is eating away at both of them. To fix it they must journey to the northern mountains—under the watchful guard of Captain Tor Iversen—to consult with the Healer on High.

Rose is haunted. Waking one night to find her undead ancestor Oonagh Starcrest by her bed, she receives a warning: surrender the throne—or face a war that will destroy Eana. With nowhere to turn and desperate to find a weapon to defeat Oonagh, Rose seeks help from Shen-Lo in the Sunkissed Kingdom, but what she finds there may break her heart.

As Oonagh threatens all Rose and Wren hold dear, it will take everything they have to save Eana–including a sacrifice they may not be prepared to make.

My Review

I’ve followed this trilogy since the beginning, so I’m really excited to have had a chance to read the conclusion. What a wild ride it was!

Wren and Rose share a connection, but they’re really different as people. I liked the way they related to one another but yet had their own values and approaches to ruling Anadawn. Each sister has her own romance underway from previous books, and those progress here, too. I’m not gonna lie, I kind of hoped one sister would make a different choice than she did, but I felt like the ending was satisfying nonetheless.

The romantic plot contains some of the most mature elements of the story. It does fade to black before characters go further than undressing, but the characters definitely have some lusty thoughts and desires. The rest of the story feels solidly young adult. Rose and Wren are both still figuring out how to step into their adult roles as queens. They’re falling in love for the first time. I felt like those components really anchored the story as a young adult fantasy.

Wren and Rose and their relationship stands at the center of the story. In this particular book, they face a threat from their shared ancestry, one they can only vanquish together.

All in all, I enjoyed the series, and I’m glad I read all the way to the end. I think readers who are just outgrowing Disney fairytales would like the Twin Crowns series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Minor characters with brown skin. Two minor female characters are in a romantic relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. In two scenes, characters undress one another, and the scene fades to black.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have magic. Wren and Alarik performed forbidden blood magic in an earlier book, which bound them together under a curse. A cruel past queen raises humans and animals from the dead, creating an undead army.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle scenes. References to torture. Descriptions of desecrated graves.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: I Wish You Would by Eva Des Lauriers

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

I Wish You Would
Eva Des Lauriers
Henry Holt & Co.
Published May 21, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About I Wish You Would

In this drama-filled love story, private confessions are scattered on the beach during a senior class overnight and explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends (or maybe more?), Natalia and Ethan.

It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom―when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.

When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves―what they wish they would do this year if they were braver―Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed―especially their own.

Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love.

My Review

I really needed a candy romance book right about now, so I was really glad to find this one on my list. The short chapters make it especially binge-able, and the tension between the two estranged best friends makes it easy to keep reading well past bedtime (which I did.)

I like that Natalia is an artist and that her art impacts the story. There are moments when she describes how she’s feeling in terms of art or color. Ethan, by contrast, drifts into sharing strange facts when he’s stressed, which is really cute.

Almost the whole story takes place during an overnight camping trip for the rising senior class at Natalia’s and Ethan’s school. The first couple of chapters take place a few months before, and the last chapter takes place long afterward, functioning sort of like a prologue and epilogue.

The romantic plot of the story holds a lot of tension, with Natalia and Ethan recalling a kiss from months earlier that neither is sure whether the other regrets. The senior camping trip marks the first time they’ve seen each other in a while, and it creates a kind of forced proximity. The secret letters part of the story added some interesting components and quirky side characters and subplots.

Fans of J.C. Cervantes will probably like this quick, intense love story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Natalia is Latine on her mom’s side. Includes minor characters of other races and gender identities/sexual orientations.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently. One character uses transphobic language and deadnames a nonbinary character.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A boy and girl remove their tops while kissing. References to sex. References to romance between a girl and nonbinary character.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Two boys get into a fistfight. One character uses transphobic language and deadnames a character. References to sexual coercion, mostly off-scene. In one scene, a man boxes a girl into a corner, bracing his arm on the wall over her, and makes some comments with sexual undertones.

Drug Content
One teen character gets inexplicably drunk at the campout.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Puzzleheart by Jenn Reese

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Puzzleheart
Jenn Reese
Henry Holt & Co.
Published May 14, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Puzzleheart

Get ready to solve the mystery at the heart of this middle grade adventure about family—and a house with a mind of its own.

Twelve-year-old Perigee has never met a problem they couldn’t solve. So when their Dad’s spirits need raising, Perigee formulates the perfect road trip to Dad’s childhood home to reunite him with his estranged mother. There’s something in it for Perigee, too, as they will finally get to visit “Eklunds’ Puzzle House,” the mysterious bed & breakfast their grandparents built but never opened.

They arrive ahead of a massive storm and the House immediately puts Perigee’s logical, science-loving mind to the test. Corridors shift. Strange paintings lurk in the shadows. Encoded messages abound. Despite Perigee’s best efforts, neither the House nor Grandma will give up their secrets. And worse, prickly Grandma has outlawed games and riddles of any kind. Even the greatest of plans can crumble, and as new arguments fill the air, the House becomes truly dangerous. Deadly puzzles pop up at every turn, knives spin in the hallways, and staircases disappear.

The answer lies at the heart of the House, but in order to find it, Perigee and their new friend Lily will need to solve a long-lost, decades-old riddle… if the House itself doesn’t stop them first.

My Review

If a family drama escape room adventure was a book, it could very much be this one. This book has great moments between characters, family secrets, new friendships, and so many puzzles.

Putting puzzles (which often have really specific visual or spatial components to them) into a book without bogging it down with too many details has to be a big challenge. It’s so well done here. I felt like I could visualize the extraordinary rooms and intricate puzzles, but I never lost sight of the action and drama unfolding in the midst of trying to solve them.

The story also balances the emotional elements with fun and mystery elements. Lily has a cat and her litter of kittens in tow, and they never stop getting into trouble. The scenes alternate between scenes from Perigee’s point of view and the House’s perspective, which really emphasizes its sentience– another great element.

I think readers who enjoyed Six Feet Below Zero by Ena Jones (one of my favorites) or Deephaven by Ethan Aldridge should definitely check out Puzzleheart.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Perigee is nonbinary and has anxiety. Her dad has depression. (Maybe her grandmother, too.)

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A sentient house.

Violent Content
A woman hits her head on a cupboard and is knocked out. The house rolls out some increasingly threatening puzzles or traps, including a floor of tiles that shock someone and a pit with spikes at the bottom.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska by Helen Moss

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Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska
Helen Moss
Godwin Books
Published November 28, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska

It’s the winter of 1924, and a diphtheria outbreak is threatening the population of Nome, Alaska. The only way to stop the deadly illness from causing a full-blown epidemic is to immediately deliver one million units of the diphtheria antitoxin to the affected communities ––a task that seems impossible given that the only way to reach any place in Alaska at this time of year is by dog sled. The stakes are high, and the snow is piling higher. Will the antitoxin make it in time? Or will the infection spread faster than they can treat it…

Follow along as Balto and Togo lead the way in this race against time to get the antitoxin and save lives.

My Review

I thought the writing in this book was really cool. It’s told in narrative nonfiction, which makes it read a lot more like a novel, with scenes in which characters who were real people take action we know from historical records that they took and have conversations that align with the facts about them that we know but are made up.

The story follows the diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska in 1924-1925 and the desperate journey to bring medicine to the town and stop the spread of this terrible illness.

This is the first nonfiction version of events I’ve ever read. I grew up with the cartoon movie called BALTO, which is obviously not a historical account. Though I shouldn’t have been surprised at the huge differences between the real history and the children’s animated movie, there were definitely some moments that I was!

The author also includes a note about writing the book as well as notes on each chapter that specify which elements are historical facts and which are fictionalized. I loved this!

I think both animal lovers and readers who enjoy learning about history will enjoy this book. The chapters and scenes are pretty short, so it’s an easy read. I recommend it– especially as we near the 100th anniversary of the Serum Run.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Some characters are members of indigenous Alaskan tribes. Many characters are dogs, specifically Siberian Huskies or Alaskan Malamutes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of illness and references to children dying from diphtheria. Some descriptions of frostbite and hypothermia. A few descriptions of injuries caused by the cold to dogs. References to the deaths of a few dogs from exposure to the cold as they worked to bring the medicine to Nome.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of BALTO AND TOGO in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: I Like Machines… What Jobs Are There? by Robin Pridy and Elise Gaignet

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I Like Machines… What Jobs Are There? (That’s a Job Series)
Robin Pridy
Illustrated by Elise Gaignet
Kane Miller
Published December 1, 2023

Kane Miller Website | Bookshop | Goodreads

About I Like Machines… What Jobs Are There?

Whether they love operating them, designing them, or building and repairing them, there’s something for everyone in this accessible guide for children who are fascinated by machines! From being a train driver to a robotics engineer, readers are taken through a day-in-the-life of 25 workers and shown the different skills and qualities needed for each exciting job. The book will include a variety of machines (big, small, vehicles, devices, electrical, mechanical) and highlight some fascinating STEAM careers, getting children excited for their futures.

My Review

I’m such a fan of this series. I love that it breaks down different careers in a certain area of interest, offering inspiration to young readers for possible future jobs. This title in the series explores jobs that involve machines, such as wind turbine technician, ocean engineer, boatbuilder, mechanic, plumber, and quality assurance inspector. It was really cool to read about the different careers and educational backgrounds of each one. It seems like the educational backgrounds refer to a particular person’s life, so they may not be the most direct path to that career. For example, the patent attorney tells readers that she first got her Ph.D. in biology before getting a law degree.

Each spread or page shows a step-by-step example of an eventful day on the job. This gives readers a chance to think about the kinds of work a particular job involves and what time a typical day might start. The book also lists the best and worst parts of each job.

One of my favorite parts is at the back of the book. A two-page spread shows a chart that directs kids with certain areas of interest and personalities to certain jobs. For example, the chart has areas that ask about goals, skills, and personal qualities. There are sample answers that then direct readers to a list of possible jobs for someone with a certain goal or skillset. For example, someone who loves machines and is great with people might be interested in careers like car salesperson, quality assurance inspector, or patent attorney.

This series has so much information presented in a visually appealing way. I think it would be great for late elementary school readers who want to dream about career possibilities.

Age Recommendation

For readers eight to twelve.

The cartoony style probably makes this better suited to fourth or fifth-grade level, but the pages have so much information that I think older kids would benefit, too.

Content Summary

The pages show inclusive cartoon images of the workers.

Additional Titles in the That’s a Job Series

I Like Space… What Jobs Are There?

I Like Helping People… What Jobs Are There?

I Like the Performing Arts… What Jobs Are There? (Review to Come)

Titles I Haven’t Reviewed

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.