Genre: Middle Grade

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: I Wish I Had a Wookie; Reckless, Glorious, Girl; My Thoughts Are Clouds; and For Every Little Thing

As my regular readers know, I’m a round-one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Poetry category. Because of that, I’ve been reading tons of verse lately! I’m not allowed to share any details about our process for choosing the finalists, but I am allowed (and encouraged) to review the books as I read, so I figured I’d share four of them with you today. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed […]

Posted December 13, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 11 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: When We Make It, The One Thing You’d Save, Starfish, and The Dirt Book

Posted December 9, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 12 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Roxy, Cupcake, Jillian Vs. Parasite Planet, and The Only Plane in the Sky

Today, I have a YA contemporary fantasy, a YA contemp, a MG sci-fi, and an adult non-fiction book. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! The Shustermans have a knack for tackling timely social issues in a unique and thought-provoking way. This book focuses on the theme of drug addiction. The story follows a high-school-aged brother and a sister, both ensnared by substance abuse. While Ivy has been caught […]

Posted November 29, 2021 in Reviews / 13 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Unsettled, Amber & Clay, Legacy, and Hello, Earth!

Posted November 17, 2021 in Cybils, Reviews / 10 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Violets Are Blue, Rewritten, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Closer to Nowhere

Today, I have a MG contemp, a MG contemporary fantasy, a YA dystopian, and a MG contemporary in verse. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Violets Are Blue is an incredibly realistic middle-grade depiction of a child dealing with a recent divorce and a mother’s downward spiral into depression and addiction. I think what I loved most about this book is how believable Wren’s thoughts and feelings are. […]

Posted November 4, 2021 in Reviews / 14 Comments

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, B&N Exclusive Edition, iBooks, Kobo, TBD Daughter of the Deep brings the reader on a sci-fi undersea adventure, full of danger, intrigue, and family secrets. I love that Riordan has embraced diversity in his recent books. This one features an Indian-American main character, a Black Mormon secondary character, and an autistic secondary character. I felt like the autistic rep was especially good because it showed Ester’s autistic traits in a truly positive light and […]

Posted October 28, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 2 Comments

The Lost Language by Claudia Mills: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD The Lost Language is a heartfelt story of evolving friendships, complicated family relationships, and learning independence (even in the face of strong personalities). Betsy has always considered herself part of a pair, her and her best friend Lizard. Sure, Lizard tends to always manage to get her way, but usually Betsy doesn’t mind taking a back seat to her headstrong friend (usually). She just wishes her overly-busy mom would give Lizard more of […]

Posted October 27, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 5 Comments

Tristan Strong Keeps Punching by Kwame Mbalia: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD Tristan Strong Keeps Punching is the thrilling finale fans of this series have been waiting for! This book brings the mythical characters of Alke into our world and explores the ways in which history is intertwined with these legends’ stories. Children, both Alkean and human, are disappearing and Tristan can’t help but notice how the world goes on and ignores the lost souls. He is determined to save them, but […]

Posted October 23, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 5 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Woods Are Always Watching, Pie in the Sky, Shatter the Sky, and How to Find What You’re Not Looking For

Today, I have a YA horror novel, a MG contemporary, a YA fantasy, and a MG historical fiction book. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book definitely has a slow start, but once it got going I honestly couldn’t put it down (I stayed up way too late reading it), and I’ve really needed a book like that lately. The premise is that Neena and Josie decide […]

Posted October 13, 2021 in Reviews / 9 Comments

Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman: Review & Giveaway

Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD For any kid just beginning to understand the ways the world can let you down and how we can lift ourselves and others up against adversity. Frankie & Bug is set in Venice Beach in 1987, at a time when prejudices and outright hostility against LGBT people and people of color were commonplace (I suppose the same could still be said today, but I do think we’ve made progress). […]

Posted October 2, 2021 in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 2 Comments