Johnny Graphic and the Etheric Bomb takes place in an alternate 1935 America. The geography is just different enough to keep you on your toes and remind you that Johnny’s world isn’t quite our world (there’s a map—it looks like the South won the Civil War, for instance, and our United States became four separate […]
The True Meaning of Smekday
October 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee What does Smekday mean for you? That’s the essay question that Gratuity Tucci answers in the first part of The True Meaning of Smekday. There’s a contest to choose one essay to go into a time capsule to be opened one hundred years in the future. That first essay got […]
Darth Paper Strikes Back
October 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Darth Paper Strikes Back is the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Dwight, the origami artist who hangs out with Origami Yoda, has been suspended from school and may be transferred to an alternative school for violent kids. Tommy, Kellen, and the other kids join forces to try to convince the school board […]
The Looking Glass Wars
September 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Looking Glass Wars is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s stories, but the premise is that Carroll wrote his books based on the stories of Alyss who is truly from Wonderland but trapped in Victorian London. Familiarity with Carroll’s novels will add to a reader’s enjoyment of The Looking Glass Wars—it’s fun to see how Frank […]
House of Dolls
September 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jocelyn Koehler. Francesca Lia Block, usually known as a writer for young adults, has been branching out over the last few years. House of Dolls, an offering for younger readers, is a wispy (about 60 pages of scant text) middle-reader-level story centered on the social and romantic life of several dolls in […]
The Moon Coin
September 18, 2012 by 1 Comment
2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner (Pre-Teen Fiction – Fantasy) The Moon Coin is a delightful fantasy story about Lily and her brother Jasper. Their Uncle Ebb has always told them tales (not stories—there’s a difference) of the Moon Realm. After Ebb disappears, Lily finds the Moon Coin necklace her uncle always wore […]
Howl’s Moving Castle
September 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee Howl’s Moving Castle takes place in a Kingdom, somewhere. The eldest of three has read all the tales and she knows that she’s destined for failure—the eldest ones always are, especially when there are two younger siblings and your father has remarried. Even if your stepmom does her best to […]
Beauty Sleep
August 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
Beauty Sleep manages to retell the story of “Sleeping Beauty” while incorporating a proactive princess and true love despite the curse of a hundred year sleep. This is no mean feat! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel which occasionally brought me to happy tears as things fell into place (I’m also sleep deprived, which may factor […]
Auralia’s Colors
August 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Auralia’s Colors isn’t explicitly a middle grade book, but it’s clean enough to be appropriate for precocious older tweens (i.e., the violence isn’t described in particularly graphic detail, the sex is only hinted at). It’s a great introduction to epic fantasy, with its somewhat complex story and not quite epic length. It contains metaphors that […]
The Aviary
August 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Review written by MG Wells. The Aviary is a mystery set in Maine during the late 1800’s and similar to the classical style of The Secret Garden. The protagonist, twelve-year-old Clara, lives a lonely life in a creepy, dilapidated mansion, with Ruby (the cook), her mother, Harriet (the housekeeper) and the elderly owner, Mrs. Glendoveer. […]
