Joining the quickly growing genre of “books that are part journal, part graphic novel, and aimed primarily at middle school boys” is Star Wars: Jedi Academy. It’s a cute quick read, but not my favorite entry in this competitive field. Aside from a veneer of Star Wars, it’s pretty much par for the course. Roan […]
Hope Defined
August 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Hope Defined follows the intertwined stories of girls from two different worlds. In this case, really really different worlds. The two girls have to learn to come to terms with themselves and figure out what they value, and somehow the fate of the world rests in the balance.
Etiquette & Espionage
June 26, 2013 by 4 Comments
Etiquette & Espionage is a novel for younger readers that takes place in the world of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series (I highly recommend that series to teens and adults who wish Jane Austen had a more supernatural and steampunk flair). It’s a Victorian setting in which vampires and werewolves live, more or less peacefully, […]
The Wells Bequest
June 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Wells Bequest is a companion to The Grimm Legacy. “Companion” is a deliberate word choice, rather than sequel, because while there is overlap, you could easily start with The Wells Bequest and not be at all confused. You will, however, have missed a wonderful book—The Grimm Legacy was one of my favorite books that […]
Zack Jackson & The Cult of Athos
May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Zack Jackson & The Cult of Athos tells the story of Zack as he leaves Earth for the first time with the Junior Rangers, an interstellar group kind of like the Boy Scouts (although apparently much more open in their membership since there are girls and non-Earthlings and creatures with no gender). He’s the youngest […]
Scarlet
April 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I usually wait until an entire series (or at least most of it) is published before I start reading—that avoids the situation of anxiously waiting for the next book to come out, a situation I faced with Scarlet, the hotly anticipated sequel to Cinder. Of course, as soon as the book was in my house, […]
What Came from the Stars
February 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jocelyn Koehler. It would it be too high of praise to say that Gary D. Schmidt’s What Came from the Stars is a solid block of crazy cool braised in awesome sauce. It would not be too high of praise, however, to say that this book is special. In the town of […]
The City of Ember
February 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
My son read The City of Ember for school and thought I might like it as well. He and I had opposite reactions, actually—he thought it was kind of boring until toward the end, whereas I found the earlier parts more compelling. Regardless, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking read. Lina and Doon live in Ember […]
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 […]
Cinder
August 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
For an analysis that isn’t full of spoilers, read my review on the Broadsheet. Cinder is a futuristic fairytale, and although there are obvious connections to “Cinderella,” it’s really its own tale with nods to many other familiar stories, particularly “Snow White.” Cinder is a cyborg—after a horrific accident, parts of her body have been […]
