Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye J Walton

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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye WaltonThe Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Leslye J. Walton
Candlewick Press
Published March 27, 2014

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Ava Lavender comes from a long line of peculiarly gifted women who’ve been unlucky in love. She relates her family history beginning with her great-grandparents and their journey from France to the United States in the early 1900s. Ava’s grandmother is the surviving member of her small family by the time she marries. Desperate to escape the bitter memories of her lost loved ones, Emiliene and her husband head west, finally settling in a small Washington town. Emiliene bears one child, Ava’s mother, before her husband dies. Each member of Emiliene’s family … Continue reading →

Review: Legend by Marie Lu

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Legend by Marie Lu cover shows a gold seal with a star and three stripes on either side of it like wings above a circle with three bars across its center and an "R" in the middle.

Legend (Legend #1)
Marie Lu
G. P. Putnam’s Sons / Penguin Group
Published November 29, 2011

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About Legend

Fifteen year-old Day’s life as a fugitive becomes complicated when his younger brother is diagnosed with a deadly plague. Instead of petty pranks for cash, he must use his skills as a thief to secure the heavily guarded, highly expensive cure that will save his brother’s life.

When word of her brother’s … Continue reading →

Review: Shadow Hand by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

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Shadow HandShadow Hand
Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Bethany House
Published March 4, 2014

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Prince Foxbrush of the Southlands is devastated when he learns that his bride-to-be has fled the castle on the very day they were to wed. Lady Daylily was last seen walking toward the Wood Between, descending into a dangerous gorge into which few enter and none return. Provoked by his cousin Lionheart, whom Daylily once loved, Foxbrush charges into the woods after his lost love, determined to rescue her from whatever peril may befall her.

But Daylily is no helpless princess in distress. She carries a powerful force inside her that may prove the worst enemy her people have ever faced, … Continue reading →

Review: Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

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Don't Even Think About It by Sarah MlynowskiDon’t Even Think About It
Sarah Mlynowski
Delacorte Press
Published March 11, 2014

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It all starts with a simple flu vaccine. One by one, the students in homeroom 10-B discover they have telepathic abilities as their minds become filled with voices of other students, teachers and even their parents.

At first, the students revel in the secrets they learn about one another: who cheated on whom, the identity of a secret crush, the test answers recorded by the smartest kid in class. But they also learn things they didn’t want to know. For one boy, it’s that Dad is having an affair and Mom has … Continue reading →

Review: The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

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The Mark of the Dragonfly
by Jaleigh Johnson
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Published March 25, 2014

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Since her father’s death, Piper has lived by scavenging artifacts that fall from the sky in meteor showers. Nothing she’s found yet promises to be as valuable as Anna, the girl she stumbles upon who bears a tattoo of an intricate mechanical dragonfly. The tattoo indicates the girl is from the Dragonfly Territories and is protected by its king. If Piper can return the girl home, she will collect a reward that will buy her a new life away from the scrap towns forever.

With no memories to guide them, Anna depends on Piper to unearth … Continue reading →

Why You Should Read Books Your Kids Are Reading

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When multi-published YA author Robin McKinley’s novel Deerskin hit shelves in 1994, the story was considered her first foray into adult fiction. Why? The story contained a scene in which a girl is raped and the text contains the F-bomb. At the time, this was not considered appropriate content in the YA market.

Times have changed.

Fast-forward fourteen years to 2008, to Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s novel Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, in which readers encounter graphic sexual content between several characters and, on a single page, the F-bomb is dropped no less than 25 times.

(Side soap box moment: if this had been any other word, the editor would have cut 24 of those occurrences. Seriously. Imagine how boring “very” would be on a page 25 times. Why didn’t it get cut? Two words: Controversy sells.)

So what does this mean for today’s thirteen year-olds? It certainly means … Continue reading →