As Chopsticks opens, Glory Fleming, child prodigy that critics hailed as “the Brecht of the Piano,” has gone missing from the rest home where she was staying and being treated for exhaustion. Only 17 at the time, Glory has already played at top venues in the U.S. and Europe, and she is renowned for her modern innovations on classical pieces.

From this beginning, the story of what happened to Glory is slowly revealed through scrapbook cuttings, photos, drawings and more. We see photos of her parents’ marriage, her pregnant mother, and notices of her mother’s death when Glory was only 8. As she grows, her progress is send through recital programs from Carnegie Hall, articles in “The New Yorker,” and photos of Glory with her piano-teacher dad.

In high school a boy from Argentina move next door, and Glory’s life expands a bit. They start to spend time together, sharing playlists, texting each other, and hanging out. But when Glory is scheduled on a European tour and Frank’s grades spiral down, both begin to spin out of control.

Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral use innovative storytelling techniques to keep you turning pages looking for clues to what happens to Glory and Frank. Readers can check out links to YouTube videos that highlight performances from the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks, Hoagy Carmichael playing the Chopsticks waltz and more. The combination of words, images and video create a compelling story through to the end.

I recommend Chopsticks for readers aged 14 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review.

I’m excited to be participating in the blog tour for the new young adult collection of short stories, Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides To Every Story. I have one copy of this book to give away to someone who comments by midnight (PST) on Tuesday, February 14. Addresses in the U.S. and Canada only please. Read on for my review, then check out the Girl Meets Boy Book Trailer.

In Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story, twelve young adult writers team up to six stories from two different points of view: his and hers. This collection, edited by Kelly Milner Halls, is funny and smart and raw in the way it looks at teens in love.

Joseph Bruchac writes of a Native American boy who is short for his age and learning martial arts to defend himself against the bigger guys at school. He would like to get together with the tall star of the girls basketball team, but he’s sure she would never go for him. Cynthia Leitich Smith writes the other side of the story, of a girl who’s not very girly and who intimidates the boys around her. In this story, as in all the other, the boys and girls face their insecurities, their fears, and sometimes even defy the wishes of their parents in the pursuit of love.

Other writers in the collection include Chris Crutcher and Kelly Milner Halls, James Howe and Ellen Wittlinger, Terry Davis and Rebecca Fjelland Davis, Terry Trueman and Rita Williams-Garcia, and Randy Powel and Sara Ryan

Issues that these teens deal with include being attracted to someone of a different race, someone of the same sex, and someone of a different religion. Their moral backgrounds don’t always match. But they all share one thing in common: they are taking a chance on someone in the hopes of finding love. The writing is fresh and thoughtful and provocative. Girl Meets Boy is fun to read. It’s also interesting to see what each author has to say about the inspiration for his or her character. I recommend it for ages 15 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review.

Here’s a guest book review from author Christina Hamlett. Visit her website for more information about her work, www.authorhamlett.com.

Title: Mistress Masham’s Repose
Author: T.H. White
Publisher: New York Review Children’s Collection (2004)
Reviewer: Christina Hamlett

What a wonderful trek down memory lane! I owned a copy of this book when I was 10 and remember being so riveted by it that when it was time to go to bed I took the book under the covers with me and finished reading it by the light of my Girl Scout flashlight. (Which no doubt accounts for why I have such bad eyesight as an adult!) Since my own copy had been long gone, I was delighted to discover I could buy a replacement on Amazon. Instead of preceding this one with a cup of hot chocolate and finishing the last chapters by flashlight, however, I had a martini and happily stayed up until midnight. Time has not diminished in any way the satisfaction of a tale well told.

The story speaks to timeless themes about the powerlessness of children in the dreary world of rules imposed by adults. Is it any wonder, then, that the spunky heroine, Maria, delights in the colony of Lilliputians she discovers on the grounds of Malplaquet and sees a ready kinship with their dreams, fears and sense of righteous rebellion. Although she is not a perfect child, Maria is possessed of a kind heart that infuses her with bold – and sometimes comedic – determination to save her diminutive friends from harm. T.H. White seamlessly intercuts between the two worlds that Maria inhabits. It wasn’t until many years after I first read this book that I recognized striking parallels to the novel for which White is most famous – The Once and Future King. Maria shares much in common with the bewildered young King Arthur, including the “Merlin” mentorship of a bookish professor and a quest to keep an enchanted and special version of backyard Camelot from being absorbed by external vice and unabashed greed.

Although the book is targeted to lower grades, one would never know it from White’s style and engaging use of language. He would be the type, I think, who could hold lengthy discourses about the state of the world with a rapt gaggle of 10 year olds and they would never once think that he was talking down to them nor trying to impress them with philosophies beyond their vocabularies or frame of reference. Whether you’re discovering this literary treasure for the very first time or revisiting it after a long absence, it doesn’t fail to entertain or inspire.

Here’s a guest book review by author Christina Hamlett (AuthorHamlett.com).

Title: “Growing Up Jewish in Small Town America: A Memoir”
Author: Elaine Fantle Shimberg
Published in 2011, Abernathy House Publishing

Among the numerous delights in Elaine Fantle Shimberg’s latest release, Growing Up Jewish in Small Town America: A Memoir, are the inclusion of quotes that speak as much to Jewish culture and philosophy as they do to the universally bewildering dichotomy of wanting to blend in and yet still stand out as unique. Shimberg’s fond recollections of being one of the 32 Jewish families living in 1940’s Fort Dodge, Iowa are funny, conversational and reminiscent of a safer era in which kids could ride their bicycles after dusk down neighborhood streets and not worry about ending up on the back of a milk carton. The black and white captioned photographs sprinkled throughout the text are sweet frosting on an already delicious cake, and it’s easy to see how the young Elaine’s curiosity, daredevil sense of adventure, and unabashed mirth laid the foundation for such a successful career as an author, columnist and talk show host when she grew up.

As a former actress, I can likewise find much to relate to in her anecdotes about treading the boards as the Virgin Mary at her kindergarten’s Christmas pageant and turning her time in the spotlight into a boisterous solo of “Rock a Bye Baby.” That she disavows blame or credit for her embarrassed teacher later joining a convent is one of many humorous postscript remarks guaranteed to have liquid come out of your nose if you’re foolish enough to be drinking while reading.

What I especially admire about Shimberg’s breezy and approachable style is that she doesn’t resort to one of the common practices of others who have penned life stories; specifically, their penchant for analyzing, interpreting and justifying actions and events from the 20/20 perspective of adulthood instead of just relating them from the innocence of memory. Though written decades after-the-fact, the voice in which she whimsically brings her past to life is that of an inquisitively impatient young adult who wants to rush headlong into the future and yet recognizes that – like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” – everything that defines her true values has not only been with her all along but was shaped by the experiences of her ancestors, themselves strangers once upon a time in a strange land.

Shimberg’s book will resonate as much with teenagers starting out on their own journey as it will with well traveled adults caught up in the introspection of all the roads not taken. If I have any criticism at all of the book, it’s that it was much too short. One can only hope that this exceptional storyteller has many more chapters and pictures up her sleeve that will entertain us in the coming years.

Martha Allen is 22 and well past the age when her family started to think of marriage for her. But her hard disposition has attracted no man who would marry her, and so she is sent to live with her cousin Patience and help with the household while Patience goes through a difficult pregnancy.

Lie is hard in rural Massachusetts during the late 1600s, and Martha is a big help. She finds herself attracted to Thomas, an indentured man who helps to run the farm. There are whisperings that Thomas has a secret to hide, that he was somehow involved in Cromwell’s execution of England’s king years before. Whatever happened in his past, it now threatens to shatter the peaceful existence that has settled over the household.

The Traitor’s Wife by Kathleen Kent tells the beginning of the story of Martha Allen and Thomas Carrier, the parents of Sarah Carrier in The Heretic’s Daughter. In this prequel, Kent once again brings this time in the early years of the Massachusetts colony alive. There were fears of violent natives on the prowl, the plague, and mischief-makers from England. This new frontier was a hard place to live, and despite the separation of colonists they depended on each other to stay alive.

In The Heretic’s Daughter, Sarah struggles to understand her mother and the hard exterior she shows to the world. Here, Martha is revealed as someone who has a backbone of steel, but it’s a rigidness born of necessity as much as personality. The same goes for Thomas, who is reluctant to involve anyone else in protecting him from his past, but is eager to begin anew in this raw country.

Through Kent’s research and masterful storytelling, she has created another fascinating tale that draws on family stories of her very real ancestors. I recommend The Traitor’s Wife for anyone who loves historical fiction.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review.

Lucky Linderman has had to face a lot of challenges in his 14 years. His grandfather has been missing in action since being captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. His father doesn’t really talk to him about anything important, and his mother escapes the home life tension by swimming laps every day. Then there’s Nader McMillan, the bully who has abused Lucky repeatedly since they were seven. When Nader goes too far one day, Lucky’s mom takes him from their home in Pennsylvania to stay with family in Arizona for a few weeks.

Outside of his regular environment, Lucky has a chance to gain a new perspective on everything in his life and decide what he’s going to do going forward.

Everybody Sees the Ants by A. S. King is a powerful and gripping story about an uncomfortable subject. Lucky’s parents know he’s being bullied, but their initial efforts to do something about it prove fruitless. Eventually, they give up. Most of the people in Lucky’s life turn a blind eye to Nader’s abuse because they don’t know what to do about it. With no one to guide him on resisting, Lucky avoids Nader when possible and takes whatever Nader gives out when he can’t.

Over the years Lucky has learned to escape into a world where he is rescuing his grandfather from his captors. In his dreams he is more powerful than in real life, and he finds a way to work through the issues that bother him. The question is, will Lucky be able to figure out how to rescue himself without doing something drastic?

Everybody Sees the Ants doesn’t flinch at the brutal reality of war zones, whether they are on the playground or in the jungle. It refuses to turn that blind eye to the consequences of those brutal actions: children who grow up without fathers, parents who blame each other for their ineffectiveness and grow apart, and a society that doesn’t protect the vulnerable. It’s not an easy book to read, but it is an important one. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 14 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review.

As I’ve been creating my resolutions and goals for 2012 this week, I’ve also been reading Christina Katz’s new book for writers, The Writer’s Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks, & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach. Over the years I’ve taken many online writing classes from Christina and read her other books for writers. Each one has boosted my writing career in just the way I needed it at the moment, and I expect it to be the same with The Writer’s Workout.

Just as the subtitle says, this book is chock full of short, easy to digest tips, suggestions and other ideas for writers at all levels, whether they are just getting started or have been writing for some time. Each page starts with an inspirational quote that sets the tone for the advice to come. For instance, tip number 166 is titled, “Consider Specializing.” It starts with a quote from Joyce Carol Oates about connecting with your true subject. Katz’s advice on what it means to specialize and how to do it follows.

The Writer’s Workout is organized into four sections according to the seasons starting with spring. In her intro, Katz says you can think of this as the seasons of the year or the seasons of your writing career. She also says it’s up to you whether you read one page a day, or “blaze through the whole book.” I’ve chosen to do both. I’ve been blazing through this week, and with the start of the new year I plan to read one new page every day. I expect I’ll skip around instead of reading one page after another. That way I can find a topic that may be especially relevant to me at the moment. But starting my writing day with a bit of inspiration and a nudge in the direction I want to go can only help me be more focused and productive at what I do.

I’ve also discovered in my “blazing through” that just because the advice comes in small bites doesn’t mean it’s something you can read quickly and move on. This is good stuff that you’ll want to mull over and think about for a while so you can determine what it means to you and your writing career at the moment.

Reading The Writer’s Workout daily is one of my new year’s resolutions. Consider making it one of yours.

Home for the Holidays is the fifth book in Heather Vogel Frederick’s beloved series, The Mother-Daughter Book Club. By now, the girls of the Concord, Massachusetts book club are almost as well known to readers as the characters in the stories they are tackling this year: all 10 titles in the Betsy-Tacy series written by Maud Hart Lovelace. Even though Lovelace’s books take place in the early 1900s, the very modern girls of the book club are surprised to find that they have a lot in common with her characters, despite the fact that the times they live in have changed so dramatically.

As Becca, Megan, Cassidy, Emma and Jess all look forward to Christmas, they each have to deal with very different issues that center around family, friends and their community. Becca’s dad lost his job, threatening to derail her brother’s entry into college and her mother finishing up her studies in landscaping. Cassidy’s family is considering relocating for her stepfather’s job. Megan is struggling with a long-distance relationship. Emma and Jess work to overcome a misunderstanding that has them questioning their longtime friendship.

Frederick weaves a lot of fun into her story as well. It’s nearing Christmas, and there are scenes where different girls enjoy shopping, ice skating, sledding, cruising the Caribbean and more. Descriptions of Thanksgiving dishes and the New Year’s feast they all share will have you cracking open a cookbook to make your own special treats. Along with quotes from the Betsy-Tacy books and facts about Maud Hart Lovelace and her real friend Tibs, there are lots of other references to situations Betsy and Tacy face that are similar to the ones the Concord girls encounter.

Frederick also has the magic touch of knowing just how to have her characters resolve their conflict. As I have read each of her books in this series, I have found myself wishing I had her pen guiding me in real-life sticky situations. Moms and daughters who have come to love the mother-daughter book club books will surely find even more to love here. I recommend it for ages nine to 14.

Evan and Lucy have been best friends ever since they can remember. They used to spend hours playing together and creating stories and drawings for an imaginary place they call Aelysthia. That was before Lucy’s parents split up and she moved with her mother from New England to Georgia. Now she comes back once a year to visit her dad at Christmas and New Year’s.

Evan hasn’t heard from Lucy in months when she lets him know she’s at her dad’s home again. And she’s changed. Her hair is chopped short and dyed black. She’s got an earring in her nose, and she’s wearing heavy makeup. She doesn’t say much. It’s clear to Evan that something has changed dramatically for her, but she won’t talk about it.

As the two spend time together, they struggle to reconnect and find the person they remember behind the façade they each show to the world. Evan conforms to his dad’s expectations of achieving an Ivy-league education at the expense of his love of art, and Lucy hides the heartbreak of her home life that is at the center of her rebellion.

WinterTown, with story and art by Stephen Emond, takes readers on a journey of self-discovery for both characters. Emond’s illustrations of the wintry world Lucy and Evan navigate, both in reality and in Aelysthia, create a feeling of coldness that applies to the outside as well as inside world of both Evan and Lucy.

Evan’s perspective comes first, followed by Lucy’s story and point of view. Woven between chapters is the graphic art Evan creates of Aelysthia, What emerges is a story of teens struggling to be who they are for themselves, regardless of who their parents expect them to be. Evan’s father wants to control too much of his life, while both of Lucy’s parents are too wrapped up in their own lives to pay much attention to hers. Evan and Lucy are important to each other, yet neither can save the other from the challenges they face.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book to review.

Ivy and Eldridge have become fast friends after their adventures in Ivy’s Ever After by Dawn Lairamore. Now they’re trying to enjoy themselves at Drusilla’s wedding when a giant beanstalk with vicious teeth for pods grows into the clouds, taking Drusilla’s pet goat with it.

In Ivy and the Meanstalk, the two set off to rescue Toadstool, only to discover a giantess who is intent on recovering her golden harp, stolen by Jack and whisked away generations ago. Largessa threatens to destroy the kingdom of Ardendale if Ivy and Eldridge don’t return the harp within a week.

This new story takes the princess and her friendly dragon on a journey across the sea to Jacktopia, where a big-headed Jack set himself up as ruler long ago. Every king in the land since then is intent on increasing his kingdom’s wealth and showing off an abundance of gold.

Ivy has her work cut out for her, but she’s got the assistance of Eldridge, Owen, and One-Oh-Three, an overprotected prince who wants to have a little more freedom. They work together to win what Ivy needs and what One-Oh-Three hopes for.

Ivy and the Meanstalk continues the fun from the first book with author Lairamore imagining the aftermath of Jack and Beanstalk. Instead of the hero he portrayed himself as, Jack is revealed as a less-than-ethical character who thought only of himself. Mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 8 to 12 will enjoy reading it as well as discussing some of the issues touched on, including how historical events may be viewed differently by various people affected, the ethics of stealing something to avert a tragedy, and the wisdom of seeking revenge on someone who had made you mad.

The author provided me with a copy of this book for review.