Perhaps because Beth Hoffman's debut is read so charmingly by Jenna Lamia, who also narrated Kathryn Stockett's bestseller The Help, I couldn't help making endless comparisons ...
Two brothers, a girlfriend, and a part-time fox set up what will certainly be a multi-volume, another-world adventure from internationally bestselling Cornelia Funke, creator of Inkworld, her last alternate universe series. While definitely filled with swash-buckling fun and heart-thumping adventure, Reckless aims at an older...
Having finished one Chris Cleave novel, I had to immediately start another without even missing a step (literally, as both books were loaded one after the other on the iPod – with Little Bee narrated with careful control by Anne Flosnik – and I was out running...
For awhile, before it became an international bestseller, Chris Cleave's debut novel was known not so much for the actual details of its content, but for the fact that the book was generally about a London bombing and that the surreal timing of its publication...
Sleepy little Banesville, New York is famous for its delicious apples ...
At the end of a six-year stint in Beijing as the China correspondent for NPR, Rob Gifford sent his wife and children ahead to London to start their new lives. Gifford, who first arrived in China as a language student in his early 20s, embarks on...
In spite of the "Afterword" being at book's end, I feel like I need to begin this post with the final line: "I write this especially so that the story of Dina and her beloved, Johann, will be remembered by our family," explains two-time Newbery...
"I always thought the biggest problem in my life was my name, Naomi Soledad León Outlaw, but little did I know that it was the least of my troubles, or that someday I would live up to it." So opens Pam Muñoz Ryan’s swiftly moving coming-of-age...
From the age of 16 when she took a biology class at a community college (making up for a failed high school freshman year because "she never showed up"), award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot has seemingly spent the majority of her life preparing to write...
If it's Saturday, it must be time to head to a court, field, gym, pool, or some sort of athletic facility ...
Sometimes my inability to process dialects actually has an upside ...
Talk about testosterone gone awry: The Chocolate War is a disturbing look at how boys – and the men from whom they are supposed to learn – mistreat, outmaneuver, and abuse one another.
Jerry...
Martha Boyle opens her front door one day to find the mother of her dead classmate, Olive Barstow, with what seems to be almost a message from beyond. Olive, a girl too new in...
If Gregory Maguire is not exactly a household name, his signature work, Wicked, certainly is known throughout the world, living an everlasting life on stages everywhere in its Tony...
This one starts with a mini-dilemma of choice ...
If you had any expectations from seeing Mark Haddon's name on the cover that this might be a deeply thoughtful novel about family relations, you'd be rather surprised. This is not Haddon's 2003 breakout title, A...
As much as this time of the year makes me sooooo cranky with too much focus on the frantic buy-buy-buy messages all around us, it also makes me a total mushpot for...
His name is Leonardo, he'll answer to Leo, but he's most often called "sardine" by his nearest and dearest because several years ago, "Leo got squashed in a corner and cried ...
I didn't actually read most of Jean Kwok's debut novel, but Grayce Wey who read it to me made it un-put-downable. Wey's gentle, lilting accent which fades in and out depending on...
Given the somber subject matter of this title, I realize this probably verges on sacrilegious, but no disrespect is intended in any way ...
