Review of The Mighty Miss Malone

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis Intermediate, Middle School    Lamb/Random    309 pp. 1/12    978-0-385-73491-2    $15.99 Library ed.  978-0-385-90487-2    $18.99 e-book ed.  978-0-375-89736-8    $10.99 To her father, twelve-year-old Deza Malone is “my Darling Daughter Deza,” “that sassy, smart, beautiful, charming little girl…my Mighty Miss Malone.” But it’s 1936, and the Depression has hit Gary, [...]

Review of Beneath a Meth Moon: An Elegy

Beneath a Meth Moon

Beneath a Meth Moon: An Elegy by Jacqueline Woodson High School    Paulsen/Penguin    182 pp. 2/12    978-0-399-25250-1    $16.99 Woodson takes us on the dark journey of addiction, mimicking the slow, hazy spell of drug use with the lull of her poetic prose. Laurel’s happy childhood on the Gulf shore ends abruptly when Hurricane Katrina destroys her [...]

Review of No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller

No Crystal Stair

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson; illus. by R. Gregory Christie Middle School, High School    Carolrhoda Lab    188 pp. 2/12    978-0-7613-6169-5    $17.95 e-book ed.  978-0-7613-8727-5    $12.95 Inspired by Marcus Garvey and the drive to make a difference, Lewis Michaux opened the [...]

Review of The Cabinet of Earths

The Cabinet of Earths

The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet Intermediate    Harper/HarperCollins    260 pp. 1/12    978-0-06-196313-1    $16.99 e-book ed.  978-0-06-209919-8    $8.99 “Well! It is better to read fairy tales than to find yourself caught in them,” Nesbet’s narrator declares, a predictor of what is to be found in the subsequent pages — for Nesbet’s story is a-shimmer with [...]

Review of The One and Only Ivan

One and Only Ivan

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate; 
illus. by Patricia Castelao Intermediate    Harper/HarperCollins    305 pp. 1/12    978-0-06-199225-4    $16.99    g e-book ed.  978-0-06-210198-3    $9.99 “I am Ivan. I am a gorilla. / It’s not as easy as it looks.” In short chapters (the book has an open layout and frequent illustrations) that have the look [...]

Review of The Fault in Our Stars

the fault in our stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green High School    Dutton    321 pp. 1/12    978-0-525-47881-2    $17.99    g I suppose this is a cancer book, but as its inimitable heroine Hazel would say, “It’s not a cancer book, because cancer books suck.” Evoking yet transcending such teen-illness classics as Paige Dixon’s May I Cross Your Golden [...]

Review of Why We Broke Up

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler; illus. by Maira Kalman High School    Little, Brown    355 pp. 12/11    978-0-316-12725-7    $19.99 Min and Ed’s differences are profound–most obviously, she’s a quirky aspiring filmmaker and he’s a popular jock. Readers see immediately, though, that it’s not simply these practical differences that caused their breakup, the event on [...]

Review of The No. 1 Car Spotter

The No. 1 Car Spotter

The No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke; illus. by Warwick Johnson Cadwell Primary, Intermediate    Kane Miller    112 pp. 9/11    Paper ed.  978-1-61067-051-7    $5.99 Oluwalase Babatunde Benson, called No. 1, is the best car spotter in his African village. His unnamed country has cities and towns with skyscrapers, hotels, offices, tap water, electricity, and televisions, but [...]

Review of Bluefish

Bluefish

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz Middle School    Candlewick    229 pp. 9/11    978-0-7636-5334-7    $15.99 e-book ed.  978-0-7636-5614-0    $15.99 “Stupid bluefish” Travis Roberts finds “lowlife trailer-trash loser” Vida “Velveeta” Wojciehowski in a lovely, understated book that celebrates the possibility of a kind and humane friendship between an eighth-grade girl and boy. Travis and Velveeta meet while both are [...]

Review of First Day on Earth

First Day On Earth

First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci Middle School, High School    Scholastic    150 pp. 11/11    978-0-545-06082-0    $17.99 “Why is the hardest question in the world to answer.” And sixteen-year-old Mal (short for Malcolm) asks why a lot: Why did his father leave? Why did his mother fall apart? Why did aliens abduct him, probe him, [...]