Publications about books for children and young adults
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein High School Hyperion 337 pp. 5/12 978-1-4231-5219-4 $16.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4231-5325-2 $16.99 Wein’s exceptional—downright sizzling—abilities as a writer of historical adventure fiction are spectacularly evident in this taut, captivating story of two young women, spy and pilot, during World War II. Wein gives us the story in two [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
