Sometimes, an “issue” book is simply an “issue” book.  The protagonist is a cutter.  On drugs.  Pregnant.  Homeless.  Abused.  Et cetera.  The book revolves entirely around said issue, and things progress much in the same manner as an after-school special (which, come to think of it, do they even make those anymore?).  These books often [...]

Grandmothers, mothers, teachers at all girls’ schools, listen up.
(Well, librarians and other teachers listen up too.)
Here’s that sweet little book that comes along once or twice a year and works its way into the hearts of its readers. That book that spreads itself out like the coziest of handknit blankets and wraps itself around you [...]

Secrets are, by nature, phenomenally interesting.  (Also, they’re far better when they belong to someone else and you overhear them.)  It’s why we love James Bond and Alex Rider and Sydney Bristow and Jason Bourne…secrets are their livelihood.  It’s also why we love novels, because the act of reading fiction in itself is a form [...]

There are days I go to collect the mail, and rather than the usual stack of bills, it’s all requests from charities.  Children’s charities, health-related charities, feminist charities, religious charities.  Each one is deserving, and each one shows real kindness to real people that I will never be able to help with my own two [...]

Here’s the sad truth of it:  I am in the second round of braces.  I suffered through the first round while in middle school, and now, years later, I found myself back in the orthodontist’s chair with some wayward bottom teeth.  (Why couldn’t they have behaved as well as the top teeth?  Why?)  I’m currently [...]

I guess it was okay.
.
.
.
What?
Okay, fine. I’ll write more.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CATCHING FIRE (excluding actual plot points, because even if Scholastic hadn’t asked very, very nicely for us not to spoil the plot, I wouldn’t anyway, because the surprises in this book are so awesome that I can’t imagine ruining them for [...]