Ellen is a fourteen year-old who doesn’t need many friends. She has all the company she needs in her older brother Link and his best friend James, with whom she is “totally madly in love”. But as they enter their senior year of high school and Ellen is finally going to the same school asContinue reading “Book Review: My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr”
Category Archives: YA fiction
Book review: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Trisha McFarland gets lost in the woods while on a six-mile hike in the Appalachians with her recently divorced mother and her angry older brother. And that, folks, sums up the plot of this tightly crafted, superb novel for young adults by Mr. King. In fact, I don’t think I even knew what “tightly crafted”Continue reading “Book review: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”
Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
I read Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein right before the Christmas break so bear with me- my memory is worst than Lance Armstrong’s credibility (couldn’t help myself. Sorry.) I think I am going to be lazy and just copy the description from amazon as I can’t figure out how to give a summary of this bookContinue reading “Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein”
Book Review: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley During the last month of Cullen Witter’s junior year, his junkie cousin overdoses. That is the most normal thing that happens to Cullen during the summer before his senior year. The Lazarus Woodpecker, thought to be extinct, is spotted in the woods causing the residents of hisContinue reading “Book Review: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley”
Book review: The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen
Henry is a 13 year-old boy who loves wrestling, trivia and uses food as a coping mechanism. He is also a boy with a secret, one that gives him nightmares and threatens to break up his family. His journal is reluctant because his therapist is the one that suggested it. Henry, like any red-blood 13Continue reading “Book review: The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen”
Weighing in on the Sick Lit Debate
The other day I was listening to CBC (as is my wont). The current was airing a segment on a new genre of YA lit dubbed “sick-lit.” I listened with great interest; a new YA lit genre I have not heard of? Why do tell! Imagine my disappointment (not to mention severe, itchy case ofContinue reading “Weighing in on the Sick Lit Debate”
Book Review: There is No Dog
What if God was a teenage boy? That is the question Meg Rosoff asks in her thought-experiment-in-novel-format, There is No Dog. God, a lanky, self-centered teen named Bob, got the job as Earth’s Allmighty because his mom won it in a poker game. But Earth is a backwater, in a little known and not wantingContinue reading “Book Review: There is No Dog”
Book Review: Folly by Marthe Jocelyn
Ahhh, here’s a book set in the 19th century. No Jack the Ripper wannabe ghosts in this here book. When Mary’s mother dies, Mary assumes all the responsibilities of keeping their poor, rural household together and caring for her younger siblings. It is a hard life, but Mary loves her brothers and especially her babyContinue reading “Book Review: Folly by Marthe Jocelyn”
Book Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
When I picked this book up, I thought I was indulging in my particular affection for a yarn set in the nitty gritty Victorian London. Jack the Ripper, Boarding Schools, a young, vulnerable heroine that is stronger than she looks. Perfect for these dozy winter days. Imagine my surprise when the first scene takes placeContinue reading “Book Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson”
Book Review: All Good Children by Catherine Austen
Oh how I like me some interesting Dystopian fiction. I like it even more when said Dystopia is caused by chemical corporations. And Catherine Austen gets double points for the portrayal of a teenage boy that well, feels like a teenage boy. But I get ahead of myself. Maxwell Connors lives in New Middletown withContinue reading “Book Review: All Good Children by Catherine Austen”
Lina Branter 