Teen and Young Adult Fiction Reviews
The five-star rating system.
Sun and Moon by Desiree Williams is a good, summer romantic fantasy appropriate for middle grade and young adult readers. It’s short, easy to digest, and has an assured happy ending, like a bag of popcorn at the movie theater.… Read the rest
Synopsis
Set in Appalachia of northern Kentucky along the Ohio River, M.C. Higgins is the oldest son in an African American family, proud of his great grandmother’s mountain and proud of his skills as a swimmer, a hunter-tracker, and how he can shimmy up his forty-foot steel pole to view the hills.… Read the rest
I kind of fell in love with Sylvester and Huxley and the story world. I read an ARC of The Electrical Menageries, and when the blog tour sign ups came around, I raised my hand.… Read the rest
Before she was the Queen of Hearts she was just a girl in love…
In Heartless, Catherine just wants to open a bakery with her best friend. But the King of Hearts wants her as his wife.… Read the rest
Twelve-year-old Andy Rusch walks to school and walks home for lunch. He’s 
free to roam the countryside surrounding his small town of Serenity the whole day long, and his parents have no trouble with him befriending the village’s odd-man character, Onion John.… Read the rest
Ivan is a silverback gorilla, captured as a baby and living his entire life in captivity—a featured attraction in the third-rate Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. With his artistic talents (drawings by Ivan sell for twenty bucks apiece), life is bearable.… Read the rest
A Cinderella retelling for fans of geek culture. Cinderella has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. I remember seeing it in the theatre as a little girl.… Read the rest
Tanwen is gifted at telling stories and weaves colorful tales about the godesses and King Gareth, crown-approved stories. In the end, her tales produce pretty crystal trinkets, which she sells.… Read the rest
I read this Newbery winner when I was in junior high school. Ordinarily, I didn’t go for man-against-nature type of stories. I didn’t go for a novel told in first person present tense. But Island of the Blue Dolphins featured a girl who had to survive totally alone on her island.… Read the rest
It’s Addicting by Laura L. Smith is the third book in the Status Updates series, suitable for ages sixteen and up. Check out Kathrese McKee’s review of the series’ first book, It’s Complicated, and my review of the second installment, It’s Over.… Read the rest