Review of the Week

Each week we publish a review of a new book people are--or should be--talking about.

Review of Better to Wish

Better to Wish

Better to Wish [Family Tree] by Ann M. Martin Intermediate, Middle School    Scholastic    231 pp. 5/13    978-0-545-35942-9    $16.99 e-book ed.  978-0-545-53926-5    $16.99 The typical historical fiction set during the Great Depression is a story of financial hardship — but it’s not lack of money that’s the issue here, in this first of what will be [...]

Review of Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas

primates

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani; illus. by Maris Wicks Middle School, High School     First Second/Roaring Brook     140 pp. 6/13     978-1-59643-865-1     $19.99 A graphic format admirably propels this lightly fictionalized group biography of “Leakey’s Angels”: Jane Goodall (chimps in Rwanda), and Biruté Galdikas (orangutans [...]

Review of Bear and Bee

Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier

Review of Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier. From the May/June 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Review of Kelsey Green, Reading Queen

kelsey green

Kelsey Green, Reading Queen [Franklin School Friends] by Claudia Mills; illus. by 
Rob Shepperson Primary    Ferguson/Farrar    122 pp. 5/13    978-0-374-37485-3    $15.99    g e-book ed.  978-0-374-37488-4    $9.99 Kelsey might be the reading queen of her third-grade class, but her throne is threatened when principal Mr. Boone announces a school-wide reading challenge: two thousand books read before [...]

Review of The Beatles Were Fab 
(and They Were Funny)

beatles

The Beatles Were Fab 
(and They Were Funny) by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer; illus. by Stacy Innerst Primary     Harcourt     40 pp. 3/13     978-0-547-50991-4      $16.99 Since the early sixties, the Beatles have defined the musical landscape of the world, influencing generations of listeners and musicians. Beatlemania, from its beginning in Liverpool to the band’s final [...]

Review of Water in the Park

water in the park

Water in the Park: A Book About Water & 
the Times of the Day by Emily Jenkins; 
illus. by Stephanie Graegin Primary    Schwartz & Wade/Random    40 pp. 5/13    978-0-375-87002-6    $16.99 Library ed.  978-0-375-97002-3    $19.99 On a warm day, just before six a.m., a city park starts to stir: turtles laze on rocks by the pond, [...]

Review of Ask the Passengers

Ask the Passengers

Ask the Passengers by A. S. King High School    Little, Brown    295 pp. 10/12    978-0-316-19468-6    $17.99 Astrid would be the quintessential Q-for-Questioning girl in her high school’s LGBTQ support group if her small-town, small-minded school had such a thing — and the gay question is only one of many weighing her down. When her humanities [...]

Review of The Dark

The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Review of The Dark by Lemony Snicket. From the March/April 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Review of Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell High School    St. Martin’s Griffin    328 pp. 2/13    978-1-250-01257-9    $18.99 e-book ed.  978-1-250-03121-1    $9.99 It’s the start of a new school year in 1986 Omaha when sophomores Eleanor and Park meet for the first time on the bus. They are an unusual pair: she’s the new girl in town, [...]

Review of Deadly!: The Truth About the Most 
Dangerous Creatures on Earth

Deadly!

Deadly!: The Truth About the Most 
Dangerous Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies; illus. by Neal Layton Primary, Intermediate    Candlewick    64 pp. 3/13    978-0-7636-6231-8    $14.99 Readers with a taste for the grisly realism of nature will revel in the latest Davies and Layton collaboration, featuring the ways in which animals cause lasting harm or death [...]