Publications about books for children and young adults
The Archived by Victoria Schwab Middle School, High School Hyperion 324 pp. 1/13 978-1-4231-5731-1 $16.99 g Mackenzie is a “Keeper”; her job is to return the wakeful dead (or “Histories”) to the Archive, a repository of all human memory. Persuading the dead to return to their rightful resting place often involves kick-ass combat, but never [...]
From the November/December 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Reviewer Christine Hepperman asks author and editor David Levithan about writing gender (and the lack thereof) in his YA novel Every Day. Read the full review of Every Day here. Christine Hepperman: Were there specific challenges in writing a character who is both genders and [...]
Every Day by David Levithan Middle School, High School Knopf 325 pp. 8/12 978-0-307-93188-7 $16.99 Library ed. 978-0-375-97111-2 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-0-307-97563-8 $10.99 “A,” the narrator of Levithan’s brilliantly conceived novel, wakes up in a different sixteen-year-old’s body every morning and has to adjust to different physical characteristics, a different family, a different school, different [...]
Pinned by Sharon G. Flake Middle School, High School Scholastic 231 pp. 10/12 978-0-545-05718-9 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-545-46984-5 $17.99 Ninth-grader Autumn is great at some things — wrestling, for one; cooking, for another. Reading is not one of her skills, due in part to multiple moves during her early childhood and parents who also don’t [...]
Dodger by Terry Pratchett Middle School Harper/HarperCollins 360 pp. 10/12 978-0-06-200949-4 $17.99 Library ed. 978-0-06-200950-0 $18.89 e-book ed. 978-0-06-219015-4 $9.99 Who would have the skill, the sensibility, and the sass to put Charles Dickens into a novel and then proceed to write that novel in full-octane Dickensian style? Terry Pratchett, of course. Like his namesake [...]
What Came from the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt Middle School Clarion 293 pp. 9/12 978-0-547-61213-3 $16.99 g Schmidt brings high heroic fantasy and contemporary realism together in this novel of a bereaved family. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, Tommy grieves for his mother, who died eight [...]
A Certain October by Angela Johnson High School Simon 158 pp. 8/12 978-0-689-86505-3 $15.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4424-1726-7 $9.99 At the start of the book, Scotty is an average high school junior living in East Cleveland. She hangs out with friends, makes plans for the homecoming dance, and avoids writing a book report on Anna [...]
Penny and Her Doll by Kevin Henkes; illus. by the author Primary Greenwillow 32 pp. 8/12 978-0-06-208199-5 $12.99 Naming things, whether children, pets, or toys, is serious business, and in this follow-up to Penny and Her Song (rev. 3/12) Henkes doesn’t take that task lightly. Gram sends mouse Penny a doll: “The doll had pink [...]
Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein Middle School, High School Knopf 314 pp. 5/12 978-0-375-86963-1 $16.99 Library ed. 978-0-375-96963-8 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-0-375-98455-6 $10.99 Timed to coincide with the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Feinstein’s sixth sports mystery novel again features teen reporters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson—except that [...]
Boy21 by Matthew Quick High School Little, Brown 252 pp. 3/12 978-0-316-12797-4 $17.99 When Russ moves to decrepit, race-torn, Irish-mob-ruled Bellmont after his parents’ brutal murder, the school’s basketball coach (a family friend) turns to team leader Finley to help him acclimate, but also to convince former-phenom Russ to play ball again; since the tragedy [...]
Newbery, Printz & Caldecott