What do you call a group of girls? A giggle?A gossip?What about … a force. I was so excited to be asked to be part of the blog tour for the new Anne Ursu book The Lost Girl (which comes out this Tuesday, February 12th) I mean first of all, it’s a new Anne Ursu book AT LAST. But…
There’s a slogan in London regarding their mass transit system that has become something of a rallying cry for various causes: Mind the Gap. In London’s Underground this means make sure you pay attention when you’re disembarking. It is this slogan that kept running through my mind when reading Laura Ruby’s masterful young adult novel…
Yes. Yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking right now. Yes. It’s a broody, brilliant teenage Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries and sharing kisses alongside the troubled teenage genius Miss James “Mori” Moriarty. I am guessing that your reaction is probably similar to mine the first time I heard about this book and then saw the delightful…
What a lovely marvel this book is. This is a picture book biography of John Roy Lynch, who was freed from slavery at 16 and within ten years was elected to the United States Congress. The book doesn’t try to cover Lynch’s entire life (though there’s great back matter including a timeline, suggestions for further…
I honestly can’t think of anyone in YA who does what Marcus Sedgwick does. Perhaps this is why I am so entranced by everything he’s ever written. Sedgwick won the Printz Award last year (that is the highest honor in young adult literature) for Midwinterblood, which remains one of the most atmospheric and overwhelming YA books…
A few weeks ago there was a longform article in the New York Times about scientific studies being done with the goal of proving that bisexuality exists. I suppose it was interesting enough, reading about the motivations of the researchers, hearing about the history behind studies like this. And yet. And yet at the same time…
“Give me some genuine emotion. Challenge yourself to be honest instead of merely clever.” I read Wise Young Fool for the first time months and months ago. I have read many and many books since now and then. And yet. And yet Wise Young Fool has stuck with me through all that. And yet Wise Young Fool is…
Where to begin? Where even to begin with a book this finely crafted, this breathtakingly realized, this clever, this full of love and aches and metaphors and, yes, magic? (but not the magic you’re thinking of – not the easy kind, not the kind that comes without consequences.) The Real Boy is the story of…
It all starts with a buzz that high school student Piddy shrugs off – “Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass!” She doesn’t even know Yaqui so why would she want to fight with Piddy? It’s probably a case of mistaken identity or no big deal. And, anyway, what’s the worst this total stranger could do? This is the…
“The hole is what lets it change.” What a moment it is – the moment of recognition, the moment when you feel like someone has seen you. For me, this moment of connection sends an almost physical jolt through me. One of the things I loved the most about Linda Urban’s artfully crafted, painfully beautiful book The…
