Category Archives: Contemporary

Top Ten Books Featuring Music

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Top Ten TuesdayTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is music in books. I think the actual prompt is geared more toward either listing songs that would make great books or identifying a theme song for a particular book. I’m horrible at that sort of thing, and also deep in the revision process of my own project, so all I could think of were songs for my own scenes.

Instead, I’ve put together a list of books in which characters are either in a band or in which the stories feature music as an important theme. For me, music has always been a huge part of my life, so I … Continue reading →

Review: Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart

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bluegoldBlue Gold
Elizabeth Stewart
Annick Press

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Three fifteen year-old girls: Fiona, the daughter of an executive at a technology company in Vancouver who has just misplaced her phone, Sylvia, who bears the scars of an attack in her village in Congo and now lives in a refugee camp in Tanzania, and Laiping, a girl from a rural town working in a factory in Shenzhen, China so she can send money home to her family. They lead vastly different lives, but they all share one common connection: the mineral Coltan, or “blue gold” used to make electronics and cell phones.

After sending her boyfriend a topless picture of herself, Fiona loses her cell phone. Though … Continue reading →

Review: Nightingale’s Nest by Nikki Loftin

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Nightingale's Nest by Nikki LoftinNightingale’s Nest by Nikki Loftin
Penguin Young Readers

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Twelve year-old Little John spends his summer days helping his father care for trees on Mr. King’s property so they can scrape together enough money for the rent. There he meets Gayle, who loves nothing more than to sing from her nest high in the branches of a sycamore tree. But Little John isn’t the only one interested in Gayle and her song. When Mr. King hears the girl’s voice, he asks for Little John’s help to get the girl to sing for him. He’s willing to pay enough money to solve all of Little John’s family troubles, too. But when Gayle refuses … Continue reading →

Review: Girl Stolen by April Henry

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Girl Stolen by April HenryGirl, Stolen
April Henry
Henry Holt & Co

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Nothing was supposed to happen. Her step-mom left her in the car for a few minutes while she ran inside to pay for antibiotics. But when Cheyenne woke, instead of her step-mom behind the wheel of the car, it’s a boy with a gun. She’d been kidnapped.

Taking the car was supposed to be easy. It was running. Griffin hopped in and took it. He just didn’t realize there was a girl sleeping in the back seat. Once Roy starts calling the shots, things get complicated. The girl’s dad owns a big company. The boys want to collect a ransom. But Cheyenne’s … Continue reading →

Review: The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil Ostrovski

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The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil OstrovskiThe Paradox of Vertical Flight
Emil Ostrovski
Greenwillow Books

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On a morning that begins with a suicide fantasy, Jack Polovsky’s ex-girlfriend calls him from the hospital. She’s having their baby and giving him up for adoption. This is Jack’s only chance to meet his son and say goodbye. At first Jack doesn’t think it matters, but the more he thinks about it, the more realizes he wants to say to his son. In a moment part panic, part impulse, and part desperation, he snatches the baby from the hospital and hits the road. He grabs the appropriate baby paraphernalia and finds himself on the run from the … Continue reading →

Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow RowellEleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
St. Martin’s Press

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Eleanor just wants to keep her head down and survive. To stay out of her step-dad’s notice. To preserve the tiny space in her tiny house that contains the only things that belong to her.

To Park, she’s the girl with the crazy hair and the weird clothes. When he lets her share his seat on the bus so she doesn’t fall victim to bullies behind him, he doesn’t realize he’s opened his life to a girl who will wake him up in a way he’s never been awake before. At sixteen, they both know love doesn’t always last, but sometimes … Continue reading →