I enjoyed this short novel that alternated between two perspectives. The two main characters meet one summer, although technically they spent their very first day on earth together in the nursery at the hospital. Both have serious things that they’re dealing with while building a friendship through training for a half marathon. The boy loves to draw and has a little bit of dread thinking that next summer he’ll have to spend the whole summer working with his dad in his
woodworking shop until he finds out that his dad has been diagnosed with ALS. The girl and her family are in Half Moon Bay for the summer while her dad takes care of his mom in Alaska. They’re facing severe money trouble and may have to sell the home they’ve been trying to build for years. Vickers does an excellent job balancing both storylines while developing the friendship between these kids all in a fairly short number of pages. I definitely recommend this book.
I ventured into this one with a bit of hesitation because many have described this as romantasy. I enjoyed Gillig’s debut One Dark Window but was a little disappointed by the sequel. Thankfully, this novel exceeded my expectations. This book puts far more emphasis on the fantasy than the romance which is far more to my taste. Gillig created a fascinating fantasy world with deep religious themes and a main character who, in her
effort to save her friends and fellow diviners, begins to question what she has always believed and eventually take down the oppressive, controlling religious system. There’s also a totally adorable gargoyle side character. Hopefully the sequel will not follow the pattern of Gillig’s first duology.
In this book, the main character gets an unexpected invitation to spend a week visiting grandparents she has never met and to attend their 50th anniversary party. She agrees to go even though her dad, who recently moved them to a new place so he had a more stable job to cover the loss of her mother’s income, said no. The main character has never met her mother’s parents who disapproved her her dad and her parent’s relationship. After arriving in Ohio, she discovers so much more about what
caused that rift and seeks a way to bring these two parts of her family together before her mom gets out of rehab. Yes, this book also has a main character dealing with a parent with an addiction although Dunlap crafts the narrative in a different way than I have seen thus far. I appreciated the care that she took with the gradual reveal and also how Dunlap emphasized the multilayered causes behind addiction. I definitely recommend this one.
It took me a little while to remember some of the details of the first book in the duology. Other than that, I really had no issues with this sequel. I loved how Jensen had both of the characters reckon with the reveals of book one, showing growth and development that set them up for the massive reveals in store for them in this book. I wish that Jensen had spent more time on some of the
interactions between Bjorn and Freya during some of thefinal climactic moments and that she had not bothered with the epilogue. I ended up enjoying this duology a lot more than I thought I would.
Let’s face it. Westerns are not my thing. This narrative told the story of four young boys fending for themselves on their farm after the death of their only parent, their father. The oldest has a penchant for writing and ends up making some money by writing tall tales about a sharpshooting kid and sending them back east for publication. The narrative alternates between these “tall tales” and “real life.” In such a short novel that limits the time
the reader has to engage with the characters and for the author to show any development in said characters. The book ended up rather boring unfortunately. Some middle schoolers may enjoy it but I wouldn’t recommend it.
The premise intrigued me. I’ve enjoyed similar stories – like the Thursday Next series – where the character can enter works of literature. This author took the concept but did not explain it well. The main character accidentally reads herself and her tutor into the play, Hamlet. Once there, the story proceeds as written even though the two interlopers have interactions with the characters. At one point they have no idea
how to get out but a few pages later they do with no explanation in between. They also pull characters into other stories towards the end of the book in a manner that also defies explanation. A few of the parts were funny but overall this book was a miss for me.
Margarita Engle writes so beautifully. I have enjoyed every single work I have ever read by her, including this memoir in free verse of her young years. In this work, Engle chronicles her early years and explores the complexity of a bifurcated identity. I highly recommend this book.
The reviews from here on out will be much shorter because of the sheer number of books that I read in June as well as the time that passed after reading before writing due to international travel.
This book is a companion sequel to a book that I have not read. While reading book one would likely enhance the reading experience, the books can be read separately. Overall, I found this an above average read with good disability representation.
Although this book appears on the middle grade list that I have for a professional development project, I think it belongs on the YA list. I really appreciated this book and the way that it centered the indigenous experience. The book has a touch of a thriller element but centers family, heritage, and coming of age handled incredibly well.
My first experience with Joe Abercrombie was a raving success. I loved the humor and the band of extremely flawed but somehow eminently loveable characters. I now cannot wait to dive into the First Law world.
Pinkney writes the poetic prose beautifully. The book also includes illustrations throughout as the main character expresses herself primarily through drawing, not receiving an education for many years. The ending felt off but other than that, I found the reading experience enjoyable and will put the book on my classroom shelves.
I found Lynch’s writing style incredibly odd and disjointed. I was never able to really connect with the characters or make sense of some of the characters’ motivation for their choices. I do not recommend this book.
Rowe structures this book well, exploring the issues with the foster care system by profiling several different “wards of the state” and their experiences in the system. This is a difficult read but so needed.
I picked this up quickly to fulfill the last prompt in the Amazing Readathon before we got on the plane to start our trip. I love how this story continues to develop in each installment, especially this one.
After my lackluster experience with this author’s previous novel, Some Desperate Glory, I went into this read with apprehension and ended up blown away with just how much I loved it. Tesh did such an amazing job conveying the details of teaching – the main character and deputy headmistress – which is not something I would expect from this urban fantasy magic school story. I loved this.
Laurie Halse Anderston always writes beautifully. I enjoyed this story set during the American Revolution – not my favorite time period to study. She knows the time period really well and creates loveable, engaging characters. I highly recommend this book.
This book provides excellent representation for something that’s getting increasingly misunderstood and marginalized, hormone therapy (gender affirming care), in this case, for precocious puberty aka puberty that starts too early. A lot of the story explored this topic and a couple others as well. However, the way that the author “revealed” the answer to the main character’s primary struggle felt odd and without the impact I
think the author wanted. This is a decent book but it didn’t quite tie everything together.
I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. While not a bad book, I still struggled to engage with the characters and understand some of the main character’s motivations. I think the book’s bifurcated focus brought the potential impact down. Ultimately it’s fine.
