Natalie’s botanist researcher mom has been shutting herself away in her bedroom since summer, and it is now approaching Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas–all the traditional family gathering times. Her dad, a therapist, is trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy, cooking… Read More ›
Peer Relationships
Rewind
Sixteen-year-old Alexandra Manning is a spinner, one of a small group of the population with a genetic anomaly that causes the body to produce an enzyme called chronotin, allowing her to freeze time and assist in criminal detective work with… Read More ›
Keeping the Beat
Five London teenage girls form a band, win the UK section of an international reality show competition, and fly off to California to prepare for the next round. While there, they fall prey to all the temptations you can expect… Read More ›
Eden Summer
This book is set in West Yorkshire, and it is a pleasure to be reminded of the beauty of the are Two high school girls have been friends since they were tiny tykes. One, Eden, seems to be a golden… Read More ›
Sneak Thief
Twelve-year-old Belle “Hush” Cantrell lives a ragged life. Her mom tells her she’s ugly and useless and, when her low-life thug boyfriend is around, sends her off on errands to get her out of the way. Belle tells people she’s… Read More ›
The Beauty That Remains
Three teenagers living in the same area die unexpectedly (and within a short time of each other) of leukemia, a car wreck, and suicide. Left behind to grieve and somehow make sense of their tragedies are a twin sister, a… Read More ›
Between Two Skies
This is a fine, well-written book worthy of all acceptation. A hard-working lower-middle-class family loses everything when Hurricane Katrina hits their part of Louisiana. They evacuate to Atlanta and try to regroup and re-start their lives. Eventually they (mostly) make… Read More ›
Matylda, Bright & Tender
This slim book is about two fourth-grade best friends who decide they want/need something of their own to care for, so they jointly buy a gecko whom they name Matylda. In the course of normal adventuring, one of the friends… Read More ›
Chaotic Good
Cameron Birch and her twin brother Cooper have moved with their parents from Portland, Oregon, to Eugene, where her mother has accepted a job with the university and where her dad has retired to work in his garden. Having recently… Read More ›
Sunkissed
This is just an excellent little happy but not silly book, for the most part. A teenage girl gets shipped off to a small island in Sweden for a month-long vacation stay with her hippie aunt. Dismayed to find there… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 