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 [...]

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 [...]

Readers of Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things, the Eisner Award-nominated first installment in Ted Naifeh’s Courtney Crumrin series, should definitely not skip the bitingly witty and insightful introduction penned by Kelly Crumrin (Naifeh’s real-life girlfriend). It speaks of childhood fears and the outgrowing thereof and sets the stage for the book’s dark and sardonic tone. 
This graphic [...]

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 [...]

If I could write song lyrics or poetry, I would probably put a little ditty here about what a great time this is right now for tween books, and how it seems like publishers finally heard my silent prayer (or out loud complaining to sales reps) and started publishing great tween-y books, but since I [...]

THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY was a big, big hit at Children’s Book World, and I think I’m going to need to make FOUR TRUTHS AND A LIE a big, bit hit at Pudd’NHead. You guys don’t need me to harp on again about how much in love I am with some of today’s [...]

Can we talk about the cover first? Briefly? Because I hate it. My galley has the same cover, essentially, but with the colors inverted, and the title under the tree and Brashares’ name over it rather than the other way around, but whichever they ended up with it’s essentially the same. And it’s boring. It [...]

You may remember that I love horse books, and the fact that I love age-appropriate books for tweens is practically the hallmark of this website. So I picked this up with a good feeling, despite being a little wary about the main character attending an elite boarding school. I was a little afraid that this [...]

It’s a good time, book-wise, to be a tween.
I read the galley of THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB within the first few days after it arrived in our shop. I remember that the Simon galleys arrived late that season and we had less than a week to evaluate them for initial purchase.
As soon as I started [...]

Oh, aimed-at-tweens books featuring tween characters doing tweeny-age-appropriate things, how I do love you.
Sixth-grader Molly is really not happy about things. Her dad is going to get married again (her mother passed away years ago) to a woman Molly and her best friend Tanna call The Claw. The Claw has changed her basketball-loving, Chinese food-ordering, [...]