Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

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You Were Here by Cori McCarthyYou Were Here
Cori McCarthy
Sourcebooks Fire

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Jaycee intends to spend the anniversary of her brother Jake’s death the same way she spent the last one: exploring an abandoned building with her brother’s best friend. Jake’s death fractured Jaycee’s entire community, and even though it’s been five years since his death, her relationships remain in the same ruined condition as the broken mental institution she visits.

Her friends are determined to reach her, though. Even Mik, with whom Jaycee feels a powerful if wordless connection. As grief pushes Jaycee closer and closer to the edge, her friends realize the only way to save her is to … Continue reading →

Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

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Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Part-Time Diary of an Indian
Sherman Alexie
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

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About The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

After a school incident provokes a teacher to challenge fifteen year-old Junior, he leaves the school on the Spokane Indian Reservation for an all-white school in a nearby town with better resources. At first, Junior’s new schoolmates shun him for being different, and at home, his friends shun him for being a traitor and leaving the reservation. Through cartoon drawings and frank narrative, Junior wrestles with his own sense of value and the value of his people.

My … Continue reading →

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 was … 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 →