Reached

Reached brings the Matched trilogy to its conclusion. The revolution starts, fueled by a plague that puts victims into a coma. The Society can’t pretend everything is just fine anymore, and the Rising provides a cure and starts to take over. But then the plague mutates, and the cure and immunizations don’t work. Everything spirals […]

Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends

When you look at the cover of Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends, you can imagine the tie-in dolls (and they look about as you’d imagine). Normally neither my daughter nor I would be intrigued by a book whose copyright is held by Mattel. But then I noticed that it was written by Shannon […]

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z

I read The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. several months ago, and now that my own daughter is in seventh grade and spent the first few months of the school year pulling together her own leaf project, this book has frequently been on my mind. It’s a slice of life type story about Gianna, who […]

Harry Potter, Books 1 & 2

Review written by Clark Valentine. (This review focuses on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s / Philosopher’s Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This review is full of spoilers, but I can’t imagine that’s super relevant to most people at this point.) You almost certainly know the story. 11 year old Harry Potter […]

The Cheshire Cheese Cat

Another book recommendation from my daughter and her school library! The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale is an amusing story about unlikely friendships and overcoming assumptions. Charles Dickens has a supporting role, with details that will keep fans of Dickens engaged (admittedly, that will mostly be adults—but that’s part of why this […]

The Real Boy

Anne Ursu, author of The Real Boy, doesn’t write happy books with neatly tied up endings, but she does write beautiful and evocative books. (If this sounds appealing and you haven’t yet read Breadcrumbs, go change that.) The Real Boy takes place on an island where magic is strong. It’s the story of Oscar, an […]

Matched

One of the review blurbs for Matched reads “If you like a ton of romance with your totalitarian government, this novel is for you!” Out of context, I’m not sure if that’s from a positive or negative review, but it’s certainly appropriate to this book.

The Sea of Monsters

Review written by Jeff Dougan. The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the first pentad of books featuring Percy Jackson. You’ll want to read these in order—I reviewed the first one here, and for purposes of introduction will just note that I like the series a LOT. The second book opens up roughly […]

The Lightning Thief

Review written by Jeff Dougan. The Lightning Thief is the first book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. In the roughly 15 years since the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, there have been several books or book series that have been called “the next Harry Potter.” Of the ones I’ve […]

Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case

Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. In Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case, the title character lives his life by twos. He has two eyes, two ears, two lips, two hands, two feet, and two brothers and two sisters. Two of them are older siblings, and two of them are very much older siblings and Jacob is […]