Today, I have a YA fantasy, a YA contempory, a YA urban fantasy, and a MG contemp series! I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I was hoping to sneak this review in during May for AAPI month, but let’s face it, we need to lift up Asian and other diverse authors every month. So, a few days into June is still a good time to celebrate this book! […]
Today I’ve got some bite-sized reviews of some of my recent reads: Two MG contemps, a MG contemporary fantasy, and two YA contemps. I hope these bite-sized reviews are enough to feed your fiction addiction! An utterly empowering book for anyone with a disability, The Chance to Fly follows Nat, a young girl with a spectacular singing voice who has always wanted her chance to shine in the spotlight. The only problem? She’s in a wheelchair, […]
Today I’ve got some bite-sized reviews of some of my recent reads: A YA fantasy, a YA contemp, a MG fantasy, and a MG contemp. I hope these bite-sized reviews are enough to feed your fiction addiction! This YA paranormal reimagining of King Arthur’s court is utterly addictive! The book goes deep into the world of secret societies when sixteen-year-old Bree goes to her late mother’s private school and discovers that demons are running amok—along with […]
One grade school memory that stands out most vividly for me is the huge project I did on Mesopotamia when I was probably in about fifth grade or so. I was entranced by all things Mesopotamian—the culture, the mythology, the political landscape, even the geography. Now, I’ll confess that I don’t remember a whole lot of it anymore, but all these (many) years later, something still thrills within me at the mere mention of the […]
I still have some more Cybils reviews to post, but I’m taking a little time off from that to post some newer releases. (Though I will be coming back to some of my favorite Cybils books still). Today, I have two YA contemps and two MG contemps (one in verse!) I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Let’s face it, we were all more than a little fascinated when […]
As my regular readers know, I’m a round one judge for the Cybils Awards in the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction category. Because of that, I’ve been reading LOTS of books 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 […]
I’ve got four reviews for you today: two MG fantasies, a YA contemporary, and a picture book. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! An utterly adorable fantasy adventure about finding and playing to your strengths. This reminded me a lot of The Worst Witch (a series that my daughter really enjoys) because Eva’s magic often goes a bit awry. Except this book is set in a fantasy world […]
I’ve got four reviews for you today: two YA fantasies, a MG contemporary, and a YA historical graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! A compelling story about grief and mental health, My Life in the Fish Tank examines how secrecy and shame can be the root of pain. When Zinnia’s brother is in an accident, her whole life changes, not because he’s hurt but because […]
I’ve got three reviews for you today: a YA fantasy retelling, a MG contemporary fantasy, and a MG contemporary graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! What if the stories that we think of as fairy tales were historical accounts? And what if those accounts had been twisted to serve the purposes of the people in power? This is the case in Cinderella Is Dead. Cinderella’s […]
Today I’m featuring the hilarious tale of a sixth-grader who’s forced into sleuthing by the spirits of zoo animals who need him to solve the mystery of their deaths. This book is written by Aaron Reynolds, who I knew in (what feels like) a past life—he wrote a full-scale musical that we performed for the kids’ ministry at my previous church, way back before I had kids. (His wife wrote the music and he wrote […]