The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner High School St. Martin’s Griffin 275 pp. 9/16 978-1-250-09552-7 $18.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-250-09553-4 $9.99 It’s the morning of September 11, 2001, in Manhattan, and the first tower has just fallen. Sixteen-year-old Brooklynite Kyle, fleeing toward home, stumbles upon a teenage girl wearing a pair of costume wings […]
Review of The Three Lucys
The Three Lucys by Hayan Charara; illus. by Sara Kahn Primary Lee & Low 40 pp. 9/16 978-1-60060-998-5 $18.95 g Lebanese boy Luli loves his three cats: Lucy the Fat, Lucy the Skinny, and Lucy Lucy. Excited for his family’s annual weekend visit to his aunt Layla and uncle Adel’s house in Beirut, Luli sets […]
Review of If I Was Your Girl
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo High School Flatiron 290 pp. 5/16 978-1-250-07840-7 $17.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-250-07842-1 $9.99 After being beaten up in a mall bathroom, eighteen-year-old transgender woman Amanda goes to live with her previously unsupportive father in Lambertville, Tennessee, where no one knows her from her pre-transition life. Though she’s […]
Review of The Sun Is Also a Star
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon High School Delacorte 349 pp. 11/16 978-0-553-49668-0 $18.99 Library ed. 978-0-553-49669-7 $21.99 g e-book ed. 978-0-553-49670-3 $10.99 New York City high school senior Natasha believes in science and rationality. An undocumented immigrant from Jamaica, she and her family are facing immediate deportation thanks to her father’s […]
Review of Draw the Line
Draw the Line by Laurent Linn; illus. by the author High School McElderry 520 pp. 5/16 978-1-4814-5280-9 $17.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4814-5282-3 $10.99 Adrian’s junior year in high school is not going well. A self-loathing closeted teen stuck in small-town Texas, he’s surrounded by “Bubbas” whose primary values are football and beer. Although he finds […]
Radioactive!: How Irène Curie & Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the World
Radioactive!: How Irène Curie & Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the World by Winifred Conkling Middle School, High School Algonquin 227 pp. 1/16 978-1-61620-415-0 $17.95 e-book ed. 978-1-61620-555-3 $17.95 While there have been plenty of biographies of Marie Curie for teens, little has been published for this audience about her daughter, Irène. Conkling’s biography […]
Review of The Great American Whatever
The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle High School Simon 276 pp. 3/16 978-1-4814-0409-9 $17.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4814-0411-2 $10.99 Sixteen-year-old Quinn’s life is static: less than a year after his sister’s fatal car crash in front of their school and his father’s subsequent departure, his screenwriting ambitions have been put on hold, his social […]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (spoilers ahead!)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (Warner Bros., July 2011; PG-13) opened in theaters on Friday to the delight and trepidation of fans everywhere. Movie-goers be warned: there is no summary or introduction as in the previous films — they really did just split one long film into two — so it’s definitely […]
At home with Kids and Home
Despite its title, RedactiePartners MediaGroep’s Kids and Home app (March 2011) features no children and a wide variety of buildings, few of them actually homes. However, it serves as an adequate introduction for young children to different architecture around the world. The first part of the app resembles a nonfiction picture book; each screen introduces […]