Keri can’t believe her brother would kill himself. She and Jake were very close, and she’s astounded that he could do something like that without her having a clue he was troubled. So when a former friend whose older brother also committed suicide suggests Jake may have been murdered, Keri is sure she’s right. Especially [...]

Here’s a guest review by author Christina Hamlett. Title: THE BONE MAGICIAN Author: F. E. Higgins Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (2008) Genre: YA Fantasy Deodonatus Snoad. Benedict Pantagus. Aluph Buncombe. Rudy Idolice. The gritty city of Urbs Umida has attracted no shortage of characters with odd names. The only things perhaps odder than their monikers [...]

Laini Taylor is a master at weaving tales that include creatures of all kinds, but her stories are solidly grounded in the human experience. Her characters want what many of us want: to know where we come from, to feel love, and to hope for the future. Karou in Daughter of Smoke & Bone is [...]

Here’s a guest book review form author Christina Hamlett: WAITING FOR JUNE Author: Joyce Sweeney Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (2006) Genre: YA When I was a high school freshman, there was a girl two years ahead of me who was inexplicably sent off one summer for an extended visit with relatives in Minnesota. Or so the [...]

Since Teen Read Week was introduced more than a decade ago, there’s been an explosion in great new books for teens to read. Here are some of my favorites from among recently released titles. Just click on the title to read my review. Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick Unforgettable by Loretta Ellsworth [...]

Award-winning manga artist Kazuki Ebine has created a new book about one of the world’s greatest men. Gandhi, A Manga Biography follows Mahatma Gandhi from the time he remembers seeing injustice against his countrymen when he was a child, until he takes his last breath. In between, the illustrations and narrative tell the compelling story [...]

Any parent who’s had a child apply for college will be able to relate to Andrew Ferguson’s look at the process in Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College. But the ones who will get the most out of reading the book will be anyone with a kid who’s in [...]

Baxter remembers everything since he was three. Doctors say a fall from a swing rewired his brain, and now he remembers every detail of everything that has ever happened to him, particularly the events surrounding his court testimony that sent Dink, his mother’s boyfriend, to jail. Elementary school, where he was known as the Memory [...]