Publisher: Penguin

#IMWAYR & #MMGM: Bite-Sized Reviews of Accidental Demons, Kareem Between, and Don’t Let the Forest In

I’ve joined up with the IT’S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING? kid-lit edition, hosted by Unleashing Readers and MARVELOUS MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY hosted by Always in the Middle… Today I’m sharing reviews of three books that I absolutely adored: two middle-grade debuts and a YA novel by an author that many of us know and love–CG Drews from Paper Fury! Hope these bite-sized reviews are enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is truly […]

Posted November 4, 2024 in IMWAYR, MMGM, Reviews / 10 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Courtesy of Cupid, The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, Falling Short, and Dungeons and Drama

Today, I’m reviewing three MG novels a YA romance. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Courtesy of Cupid is one of the first true middle grade romances I can remember reading (where the romance is the primary focus of the book). In fact, it reads a lot like a YA romance, except that the relationship doesn’t make it all the way to kissing by the end of the […]

Posted February 5, 2024 in Reviews / 6 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Between Monsters and Marvels, The Swifts, A Work in Progress, and The Land of Broken Promises.

Today, I’m reviewing three YA reads and two MGs. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! A unique middle grade fantasy with a big dose of mystery! When Dare’s father is killed, everyone says it’s a random stranger, but she doesn’t believe it. She’s sure that a monster killed him, even though monsters were supposedly eliminated completely. Dare is sent away from home, but she doesn’t stop searching for […]

Posted September 18, 2023 in Reviews / 2 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Big Flush, Give Me a Sign, Come See the Fair, Always Isn’t Forever, and Year on Fire

Today, I’m reviewing three YA reads and two MGs. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I absolutely adored the first book in this zany MG series, so I jumped at the chance to review THE BIG FLUSH. At Barnes & Noble, I often recommend this book to younger MG readers or more reluctant readers. The combination of humor and fun illustrations makes it very accessible. This second book is […]

Posted August 8, 2023 in Reviews / 3 Comments

Escape from Grimstone Manor and The Snatcher of Raven Hollow by Matt McMann: Reviews and Matt’s Top Ten Addictions!

Today I’m featuring debut author Matt McMann and the first two spooky mystery adventure books in the MONSTERIOUS Series, both of which release on May 9th. These books can be read in any order, so kids can feel free to pick up whichever title tickles their imagination. (I’m one of those people who usually can’t stand to read a series out of order, but I read this one and then the first book, and found […]

Posted April 26, 2023 in Author Top Ten Lists, Reviews / 6 Comments

2022 YA & MG Verse Novels: A Complete List & Ten I’ve Been Looking Forward To

I haven’t done a Top Ten Tuesday Post in a while, but I thought I’d jump in with a list this week, even though I’m not doing the official list. (It’s a step in the right direction, right?) Anyway, I’ve been reading lots of verse novels lately since I’ve also been writing in verse. And I wanted a running list of verse novels releasing in 2022, but I couldn’t find one. So I created a […]

Posted March 29, 2022 in Let's Discuss, Top Ten Tuesday / 9 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Cybils Nominees: Recipe for Disaster, What About Will, The Magical Imperfect, My Magic Wand, and Delicious!

Even though the Cybils finalists have already been announced, I still want to review the remaining books I read as a judge for the Poetry category. (I’ll have one more post after this one.) I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Recipe for Disaster is actually a mostly-prose novel with some poetry and recipes mixed in (often the poems are also in the form of recipes). The result meant […]

Posted January 12, 2022 in Cybils, Reviews / 5 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

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

Bite-Sized Reviews of Firestarter, The Lonely Ones, We Come Apart and The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up

I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA steampunk, two YA verse novels (one of them is borderline YA/MG), and a manga. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! (Check out my review of the first two books in this series and Sim’s Top Ten Addictions!) What a fabulously wild ride! Though Timekeeper is still my favorite book in this series, the very end of Firestarter made the whole series journey more […]

Posted February 6, 2019 in Reviews / 26 Comments