It has been hard to post here over the last few weeks, but I am determined to finish listing my favorites of last year (even if, in the end, it is simply a list). These are not necessarily my Caldecott predictions, as the books that I end up loving most are often not the sort [...]

In addition to my fascination with camp books, I’ve always loved books about twins. Real-life twin sisters DeVillers and Roy have crafted a heap of fun with their novel TRADING FACES. The twin protagonists of this book couldn’t be less alike – we have Payton, the klutzy, overexcited fashionista dreaming of popularity and boys during [...]

Lahni is not only the black adopted daughter of a white couple, but also the only black girl at the exclusive private girls’ school she’s been attending for years. As the students get older, they seem to be more aware of how Lahni is different rather than more accepting of her place among them. Because [...]

Kara Martinez’s Mexican father was killed in an accident when she was eleven, and ever since then her mother has driven every ounce of evidence that he ever existed out of their lives. There are no signs around their house of their Mexican heritage – not even in the food they eat. Ever.  She expects [...]

I loved this book, and I think it’s mostly been missed. I am fairly sure it hasn’t been reviewed on any other blog, and I haven’t seen it talked about anywhere.  It’s one of those quiet little books that often slips through the cracks – just the kind of book that an independent bookseller will [...]

I first discovered the Alice books about ten years ago, at a yard sale. I bought a whole bunch for a dollar and devoured them. Over the years I’ve mostly kept up with the series, although I’ve only read some of the high school books. I want to say up front that I have been [...]

Let’s do some simple math, shall we? Take two brothers. Subtract one father. Add a troubled past and old wounds. Multiply the oldest brother’s brains by ten, and then multiply the youngest brother’s hotness by twenty. The answer: THE DEMON’S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan.
There is a deluge [...]

I have to confess to a sort of fascination with beauty pageants. I have known some super-smart girls who participated in them (and won), so I know they’re not all glitz and glamour, but there does seem to be a sort of…seedy underbelly to a lot of the more local contests. That seedy underbelly is [...]

This book and Mary Pearson’s THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX are both about girls who are in life-ending accidents and then have their…brains, or their consciousnesses, I guess, downloaded into new bodies. Both deal with the ethics surrounding this, and what happens to them and the people in their lives as a result of the [...]

I am happy to report that I enjoyed this second installment of CANTERWOOD CREST just as much as I enjoyed the first one. The story picks up in the second semester of Sasha’s 7th grade year, which is not too long after the first book took place. One of my major concerns with a series [...]