Sometime in the winter, Mia's "far-away grandmother" arrives to live with her family. "'Abuela belongs with us now,’" her mother explains. On the first evening together, Mia realizes Abuela "can't unlock the English words," but at least they can communicate over two treasures Abuela pulls out...
For two years, young Leo has worked hard to pay for his bicycle, which he affectionately names Big Red. As rewarding as the boy-and-his-bike relationship has been, Leo is still growing ...
Out when and where they shouldn't be on a chilly October night, Stella and her brother Jojo witness "[n]ine robed figures dressed all in white," gathered around a single wooden cross ablaze. In 1932, Bumblebee, North Carolina is small enough that most of the townspeople know one another,...
OH. MY. MY. MY. Dare I say ...
Being the new kid (again) in high school is hard enough, but for Nick Pearson, he also has to get used to a new name and a whole new identity that comes with his latest 'fake ID.' Every time Nick (nope, not his real name) and...
Really, it's not just because of the dragon that I'm telling you to read this. Although, yes, the dragon is indeed an intriguing draw, especially since it doesn't appear until the very last pages, deus ex machina-style, albeit not without bringing violent retribution with it,...
Still only 12, Jaden's life is about to undergo another major change: "his adoptive so-called parents were adopting another child, a baby boy from Kazakhstan. He figured he knew why they were adopting again: They weren't satisfied with him." Parents' hearts are going to be cringe-ing and...
"They're his roots, not mine," Mia insists as she seethes on a flight bound to Vietnam with her father. "I'm a Laguna Beach girl who can paddleboard one-legged and live on fish tacos and mango smoothies. My parents should be thanking the Buddha for a...
When Samantha Young swoops out of her father's dry goods store still angry from the news that they will soon be leaving Missouri for California – the exact opposite direction from New York – she couldn't possibly have realized that her life would literally be...
Okay, I admit it: Master Keaton is my favorite new series. Luckily, Naoki Urasawa’s manga tend to go lonnnggggg (24 volumes of 20th-into-21st Century Boys, 18 volumes of Monster, and the shortest, eight-volumes of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka) so hopefully the good Master will keep me mightily satisfied for a...
On the night high school senior Kristin Lattimer is crowned homecoming queen, she decides the time is just right to become intimate with her boyfriend. As ready as she thought she was, however, nothing prepares her for the pain – both physical and mental – that follows....
Four centuries ago, in a forest on the Japanese island of Miyajima, a tree "pushed up through the dirt." Still a small sapling, the tree was "carefully dug" by a visitor named Itaro who wanted to take home a "'souvenir of this island, of the trees that...
