I have vague memories of going with my mom to visit the Vietnamese family her church sponsored after they fled in boats from their war-torn home. I remember a small apartment that smelled of unfamiliar food. I was very shy because I couldn’t understand what they said. They gave me and my brother striped polyester […]
Goodbye Stranger
September 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee My daughter Rowan, who was 10 when I started doing guest reviews and is now 15, tends to like books filled with melancholia. Those usually aren’t my thing, but because she reads them I’m trying to expand my reading habits. Goodbye Stranger is one of those books, and it’s such […]
Minion
September 30, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. Michael Marion Magadlene Morn Edson was found in a White Castle by St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward boys when he was just a baby. There was no tearful goodbye on a doorstep, or anything like that for Michael. What he discovered there, as he got older, was […]
Don’t Look Back
January 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jennifer Lewis. Don’t Look Back begins with Samantha not knowing where she is, how she got there, or why she is in such a disheveled state. This confusion is due to a traumatic event that resulted in the loss of all of Samantha’s personal memories. To make matters worse, her best friend […]
A Whole New World
December 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale reimagines the Disney movie Aladdinby working from the premise that Jafar maintained ownership of the lamp at the Cave of Wonders. This, as you can probably imagine, does NOT go well for the Sultan, Jasmine, the genie, or Agrabah. It doesn’t make things worse for Aladdin, really, but […]
Akata Witch
November 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Akata Witch is the story of Sunny, an albino Igbo girl who recently moved to Nigeria from the United States. As if she doesn’t already feel enough like she doesn’t fit in, she learns that she’s a Leopard person, which means she is capable of juju and other magical type things. She becomes friends with […]
Winter
November 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Winter brings The Lunar Chronicles to a satisfying close, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s a bit sprawling as all of the threads get tied up. However, unlike some final books to a series, it feels complete, well thought out, and not rushed. It’s just going to take over 800 pages to get […]
Moving Target
November 5, 2015 by 2 Comments
Review written by Clark Valentine. Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure is another in the young adult series of Star Wars novels that fill in some of the main characters’ stories between the movies of the original trilogy. (You might be interested in my reviews of other books in the same series, The Weapon of a […]
brown girl dreaming
May 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. There is a distinct lack of poetry in the world. Part of that could be that we hold poetry on this weird dusty pedestal, surrounded by academics all nodding sagely and talking in hushed tones about the power of words. That or we’ve put it down among the toys for […]
Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Search
April 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Review written by MR Valentine. Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Search Parts 1, 2, and 3 follow the set of comics The Promise. I recommend reading those first. The comics all follow the story of the Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender and only make sense if you’ve seen the show. Zuko has been focused on rebuilding […]
