Gail Gutradt is not a journalist. She is not a nurse or doctor, and actually has no training in the medical profession. She is not a mother. She is not a Buddhist. She speaks very little Khmer. For everything she is not, Gutradt is a...
Girls on the Edge Adolescence without instant uploads, 140-character confessions, and constant connectivity was just so last century – survival in the 21st means a whole new set of unfamiliar, unpredictable challenges. In four recent, better-not-miss novels for young adults, four diverse women writers amplify the modern...
John Corey Whaley, who was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, shares the same first name with the ever-popular, mega-bestselling author John Green. Perhaps I might be delusional here, but Noggin feels like it could be some alternate-universe sequel to Green's The Fault...
Goodbye to 2014. Whew! 2015 can only be better, thank you! What makes me so sure? Because among the many things to look forward to throughout the new year is a brand new Naoki Urasawa series-in-translation! How bereft was I when the 24-volume 20th-into-21st Century Boys ended almost two years ago. And...
Okay, so don't be too confused: the two slightly different phoneticized spellings of creator Tohru/Toru Fujisawa’s name both appear on the various volume covers seen here. That 'o'-sound is a long vowel – as in Tōru (it's とおる in Japanese) – but diacriticals can often get lost in translation,...
Rainy mornings give first-year high school student Takao permission to skip class and head to a park pavilion to work on his shoe sketches. Someday, he wants to be a shoe designer. Two months into the new school year, he sees a young woman is already...
Ten volumes of Flowers of Evil have already shocked, scared, titillated, challenged readers (in translation) over the last two years. The series comes to a close with this, the final volume ...
If you want to get to know gorgeous button-downed lawyer Shiro and adorable dressed-down hair stylist Kenji, click here to catch up on all the previous volumes. If you're looking for quick satiety, you could definitely start with any volume (yes, these could be read...
Here's lucky number seven of this internationally lauded, gender-bender series starring two sensitive, searching middle schoolers navigating through the challenges of gender-fluid adolescence. To catch up, click here – this is most definitely a multi-volume narrative that requires careful sequential attention. Shuichi, the boy who wants...
Before reading another word, click here to catch up. You need to know how we got here before you can go on! As Part Three opens, Toph Beifong is "literally carrying the weight of our world." She's trapped underground, with Katara, Satoru, her father, and many...
Confession: I've actually never seen The Mindy Project; I've never watched an episode of The Office (for which Kaling was a writer and star for some eight seasons). Yes, I live under a rock (surrounded by a lot of books). But I have ventured out enough to have seen Kaling in...
If this is the first time you're hearing about this worldwide phenomenon that is Attack on Titan, please pause and take the time to catch up. Trust me when I warn you that this is not a series that you can pick up midway; you’ll need and want to follow...
Publishers Weekly credits Attack on Titan with the recent manga rebound in the publishing industry. PW calls it "one of the best selling comics series in North America – yes, not just bestselling manga, best selling comic series, period." School Library Journal says Titan has "become one of the most...
A fatally injured 9-year-old girl, a third-grade boy labelled by teachers as "‘mentally retarded,’" a restless doctor burnt out from overwork in refugee camps, are saving the world. Rachel Beckwith didn't survive a highway collision, but her ninth birthday wish to raise $300 to build a faraway...
Bespectacled, sweater-vested, and "as shiny as a new penny," Adrian is the quiet nerd who too often gets bullied at school. At home, his mother keeps him on a tight leash, even as he is clearly trying to pull away. His father is never mentioned. His...
Check out this headline from last week: "'Attack on Titan' Drives Manga Rebound at New York Comic Con." With over 1.5 million copies in print in the U.S. (which actually seems a bit paltry compared to the 40 – not a typo! – million worldwide as of...
When she made her Stateside debut last year in Sita Brahmachari's Mira in the Present Tense (titled Artichoke Hearts in the original edition across the Pond), hapa Jewish Indian British tween Mira Levenson seemed wise beyond her 12 years in the midst of losing her paternal grandmother...
As National Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close this week, the audible rendition of this empowering memoir is an ideal celebration of two of the most legendary contemporary Latina heroes: Rita Moreno, the only actress ever to have taken Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and two Emmys...
"The idea for the Burn for Burn trilogy began over cupcakes, as the best ideas usually do," the back cover teases, citing YA-writing BFFs Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian's inseparable relationship. That said, little is sweet about this searing series featuring three high school girls bound together...
She was left at age 2 by her father, then at 4 watched her mother go; both parents braved the border into "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) to make enough American dollars to reunite the family in their dream house someday. The youngest of three children, Reyna...
