Teen and Young Adult Fiction Reviews
All Book Reviews
Synopsis
After a series of bad choices rocked his world, seventeen-year-old Preston charts a new course as far from his ladies’ man ways as he can get. He distances himself from the dating scene and avoids his party-loving friends—the things that once dominated his life.… Read the rest
Last month I interviewed one of the Scriblerians’ own, Cynthia Toney, regarding her Birdface series. Cynthia also has another book out which is historical fiction, and I loved the story. I don’t give five stars all that often, so you know it’s wonderful!… Read the rest
We’re adding a new segment to Scriblerians book reviews–reviews on books written by the Scriblerians! Several of us have been very busy in the publishing world, and it’s time to crow a little over our successes.
Cynthia is one of the original Scriblerians, initiating a small critique group for yet-to-be-published young adult/middle grade authors.… Read the rest
Third in a series of reviews about deaf characters and their siblings, Of Sound Mind zeroes in on the burdens a CODA (child of deaf adults) carries when his parents cannot or will not connect with the hearing world.… Read the rest
The “coming-of-age” story. When a boy becomes a man.
…and now Miguel is a great read for boys ages nine through thirteen. Joseph Krumgold really gets into the head of a kid during that in-between age, wanting to be respected as a man yet child enough that he’s not quite ready for a man’s responsibilities.… Read the rest
Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires.
Last month I reviewed a Newbery winner which fascinated me with its intricate puzzle mystery. When You Reach Me is based on another complicated mystery, which, if I tell you the type of puzzle it is at its core, I would ruin the ending for you.… Read the rest
The Westing Game is a mystery, or more accurately, a puzzle-mystery as 
described in the author’s own words. With sixteen characters, each with their own point-of-view, the challenge of solving the mystery ranks on par with the difficulty level of a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle.… Read the rest
When Antony John’s wife challenged him to write a book about rock music and its personalities from a deaf person’s point of view, Five Flavors of Dumb was the result.
Synopsis
Eighteen-year-old Piper Vaughn lost her hearing in fifth grade, so her speech is pretty clear, and she’s mastered the skill of reading lips.… Read the rest
Set in the late 1930s, Thimble Summer captures the era’s atmosphere of farm life in Wisconsin. Elizabeth Enright wrote this while people were just beginning to recover from the Dust Bowl further south, and the book gives an excellent sense of the Depression years through a child’s eyes.… Read the rest