Lucinda (Lou) has just finished 7th grade and is about to turn 13. She and her unmarried mom, a nurse, live with her maternal grandmother because they cannot afford their own place. Lou’s parents were engaged but her father died… Read More ›
Month: July 2018
Life Like
In a post-techno-nuclear apocalyptic world, seventeen-year-old Eve Carpenter, along with Cricket (her android assistant), Kaiser (her cyborg blitzhund), and Lemon (her fully-human friend) spends her time reconstructing robot fighters to compete in the War Dome for prize money. Adept at… Read More ›
The Museum of Us
Sadie is the only child of hippie-ish parents who live a rather vagabond but not irresponsible lifestyle. When she is eleven they all are in a terrible car crash and are left hanging upside down for hours until being rescued. … Read More ›
Potion Masters: The Eternity Elixir
Gordy is a 12-year-old boy who has inherited unusual, powerful skill in creating and mixing magic potions. He lives with his mother (who has similar skills but works what seems to be a normal job as cover), his dad, and… Read More ›
Ash Princess
Lady Thora has been a ward of the Kaiser’s court since his Kalovaxian warriors conquered Astrea, her home country, and enslaved what survivors escaped the initial slaughter. As the daughter of the murdered Astrean queen, Thora is kept in a… Read More ›
Little Do We Know
In this book two neighbors, besties and high school seniors, Hannah and Emory, have had a profound falling out, the cause of which we don’t discover until very late in the book. Hannah is the daughter of a preacher man… Read More ›
All That I Can Fix
The parents in many Young Adult novels are self-involved, negligent people who may provide food and shelter but pretty much expect their teenage children to raise themselves. Or expect the kids to tend to the parents’ needs. This book takes… Read More ›
Chemistry Lessons
Maya is a high school senior headed for MIT who the summer before is working in her deceased mom’s science lab. She lives with her widowed father and has a small group of good friends. Her mother’s research papers were… Read More ›
Fadeaway
Samantha and Reagan have been besties many years and are planning their transition to freshman year of high school. Both are athletic, and in particular they are outstanding basketball players. Just before school starts Reagan dies suddenly of an undiagnosed… Read More ›
The Island at the End of Everything
Twelve-year-old Amihan is living with her mother on an island in the Philippines to which lepers are banished. While she herself is “clean,” her young mother (in her thirties) has a rather advanced case. Her father had already died of… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 