The Boys Next Door is a cute story with adorable teenage characters who brought me back thoughts of the first boy I fell in love with, and all the incredibly embarrassing things I said and did to get him to fall in love with me. This is a light, funny read that will warm your…
I first read and loved Howl’s Moving Castle when it was published twenty years ago. In my umpteenth re-reading of the book for this DIK review, I realize I still love it as much as ever. It is, in my opinion, one of the best novels ever about finding yourself and about the nature of…
This book is a true Desert Island Keeper for me: After reading a online recommendation in 2000 and recalling that I had read a few of Patricia C. Wrede’s fantasy novels years before and enjoyed them tremendously, I went and ordered a copy of the first edition (the only one then available) for more than…
Sitting down to write a DIK series review for Ann Brashares’s compelling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants quartet has been harder than expected. DIK status has never been questioned, but to put into words the sheer depth of the emotional content, characters, and stories is nearly impossible without descending into that embarrassing land of “gush.”…
What an odd, unsettling little book How I Live Now is. Should I be surprised that this received the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult fiction? It seems all of the YA award winners these days are for stories that push the envelope. And this one does. It really does. Daisy has…
Do-Over is the third book in a series about Valerie Winslow, a fifteen-year-old girl living with her father in the fictitious European country of Schwerinborg shortly after her parents’ divorce. Although it’s not vitally important to have read the previous books, it would help to know more about the past story to understand some references…
Writing a review of The Book Thief, I am burdened by a sense of “What’s the point?” This book has already received copious amounts of positive press; The New York Times, Kirkus, Horn Book, The Washington Post, and Publisher’s Weekly, among others, have given it glowing reviews. What insight can I really add to this…
The Beckoners is a Young Adult novel about girls bullying girls. Its title is the only subtle or evocative thing about it; the book itself is violent, bleak, and disturbing. Zoe Anderson is once again the new girl in town. Her mother’s erratic employment and personal history has resulted in Zoe’s complete lack of a…
Because I know I can count on Sarah Dessen, I pre-ordered Just Listen back in the winter when it first became available on Amazon. It arrived in April. I finally opened it this week. Why so long a wait, you might ask. Sometimes you have to have something on stand-by – a sure thing waiting…
Myths and fairy tales have a soft spot in the heart of many a reader. I remember very clearly whiling away my childhood hours with Edith Hamilton’s Mythology or selected volumes of The New Junior Classics. There’s something very satisfying about a story with a point, a story told to illustrate and perpetuate virtuous behavior….
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