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Book Review:
Any Second by Kevin Emerson
Pub. date: November 20, 2018
Read courtesy of netgalley.com

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review!
I cannot wait to get this book for my high school's library!

My students are taught to be an upstander instead of a bystander. In Any Second, Maya did this... and beyond. Kevin Emerson wrote a story that is both unique and scarily possible, which is what makes it such a compelling read.

Emerson did a great job with the pace of the storytelling and the points at which the narrator's focus switched between Maya and Eli. There was also enough detail to create mental pictures without being grossed-out to the point at which the story's narrative could have been overshadowed by the horror of the circumstances. There was enough to make the reader squirm without having to be told the minutia of Eli's torture and captivity.

The author created an atmosphere that allowed the reader to be drawn into Maya's and Eli's decision making. As a reader I was being told things each character couldn't know, and since I had no way of telling them, I had tension, sympathy, relief, anxiety, and hope right along with them.

The main characters had consistently true personalities, which helped this reader connect with the plot and action. The minor characters never felt extraneous and were used well to move the story forward. One Second will appeal to many different kinds of readers and could be recommended to readers of realistic fiction as well as of action/adventure or suspense fiction.

[The only negative critique -- a hiccup I encountered -- is in chapter 17, where Eli contemplates "how some commentators said Eli's disappearance would have been a bigger deal if he'd been white." Emerson has already made the book uber-inclusive (ex., religion, sexual orientation, gender roles, class, etc.), so this one line struck me as intrusive to the flow of the story, an extraneous or obvious attempt to highlight what the author had already made clear about Eli's ethnicity when discussing Eli's names.]

Book Review: Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake

Pub Date: 26 May 2020 

Read courtesy of http://netgalley.com

One word: derivative.

First, though, this book didn't know what it wanted to be. It felt easy to read, but right off the bat (chapter 1, paragraph 1) the author threw in "big words," which could easily turn off the reluctant reader who might have otherwise found this a highly accessible book.

Second, I honestly do not know if my high schoolers like reading stories where the teenage protagonist  (Emily) is smarter than the adults, but I personally dislike that as a plot method. Yes, teenagers mostly do think they are smarter than their parents, but to make that the premise of a book, as if the teen is a superhero and the parents are clueless, gets old.

OK, back to "derivative." Quite early in the story I felt like I was reading E.T., the Extra-terrestrial. This feeling resurfaced often. Then the Men in Black reference was repeated (and repeated) throughout the book. Then the plane crash was like Hatchet. I even got a hint of Star Wars with a line that sounded like, "These are not the droids you are looking for." Then a little bit of Star Trek was thrown in with their "prime directive"; Aidan couldn't interfere with the Earth's history. I hit my limit when Aidan's departure mimicked E.T.'s "I'll be right here" and I pictured the author thinking, "Queue E.T.s glowing finger." That wasn't the last unoriginal reference, though; the goodbye scene with Emily and Aidan turned into the intro from The Big Bang Theory.

I found the author's descriptions of Emily's father to be inconsistent in that his personality didn't match his character in the end. Throughout she describe him as "all military precision and attention," "Emily's dad had many useful things in his backpack - that was his style...," "...her dad, sticking to the logic of the story," "She was still averting her eyes. Her dad would see her lies in an instant, if he looked into them," "...her dad said needlessly, and Emily realized something else: this was how he dealt with stress. By trying to understand, to analyze," and "That was Emily's dad: no need to discuss what kind of message, or how, or anything irrelevant like that. Pure focus on the plan." Then at the end,

There was an awkward silence, and then they laughed. They tried not to talk too much about the time after the plane crash - he parents told themselves a story abut it, that they'd been in a rush to get to civilization, but Emily could tell they only partially believed it, and that the best way for them to reconcile the events with the kind of people they understood themselves to be was to not think about it.

To be fair, there were some positives. The author obviously took a great deal of thought into making Aidan's character's abilities consistent and plausible. That's a real plus, since the story wouldn't have worked at all without this being tight and dependable. I was also pleasantly surprised at how clever the author had Emily be at the end with the man in the gray suit, playing like she knew as much as her parents did about the events that occurred.

However, I think the author did more thinking about how he could mix ET with Agent J or Spock than he did about making an original and absorbing story. <2 stars>

What I Want You to See

by Catherine Linka

Pub Date: 04 Feb 2020

read courtesy of Netgalley.com 

As a YA School Librarian, I try to read books from the perspective of my students. Although I've given this story a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for its story, I can only see it being a 3 ⭐⭐⭐ for my high school students. I loved the story and the style of writing, but I'm just not sure it's the type of story my students would enjoy. It's hard to say what about it does this: perhaps part writing style, part narrow character/plot appeal. The ability of a reader to relate to the world of an artist might affect how receptive the reader will be to this story. If it weren't for an art teacher in my current school who works with encaustics (hot wax painting), I might have been more lost in the story. 

Personally, I liked the writing style; although, it did take a bit of getting used to; but once I did, I flew through the rest of the story. It isn't a "great literature" style, more like both sophisticated and terse at the same time. The juxtaposition of style matches the main character's, Sabine's, duality, a teenager who has to grow into adulthood alone.

Linka fleshed out believable characters with realistic dialogue. Her characters don't feel cookie cutter or stereotypical. She didn't have to exaggerate or embellish and thereby kept her characters true to themselves. Linka also accomplished something I find that quite a few of the authors I read have a problem doing: she provided a satisfying and not forced ending to the story.

I appreciated the internal dialogues Sabine has with herself regarding morality. She ended up doing something that was morally correct and personally difficult. I found myself questioning myself as to what I might have done and when I might have done it. I can ask no more from an author than this: I was engaged in the story!

Book Review: Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

courtesy of www.netgalley.com 

publish date: May 8, 2018

Sarah Crossan brought me into a world I don't think I'll ever encounter in my own life, but she brought me into it nonetheless. Great job helping me to be a part of someone else's life, especially when I'd have no understanding otherwise.

What it is like having your older brother on death row, having a family that can barely take care of itself, having the seesaw conviction of unconditional love with others telling you to forget about your brother... mix in a great [unexpected] plot twist... creates a story full of sympathy, doubt, and life.

I really enjoyed Crossan's writing style; it helped with the rhythm of the story and with the personalities of the characters. Not quite prose paragraphs and not quite verse novel, the format added motion and emotion to the narrative.

I read this right before I read, The Hate U Give, and Moonrise is it's own unique tale, not derivative or redundant, and it provides a great addition to the repertoire of life stories I never would encounter without the aide of Angie Thomas or Sarah Crossan. 

I can see this book working for a YA book club, especially because of the moral issues tackled: death sentence, race, poverty, family, and addiction.

I'm looking forward to having this book in my high school library.

Book Review

The Liars of Mariposa Island

by Jennifer Mathieu

Publication Date 17 Sep 2019

Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I have to be honest; I forgot what the title of this book was while I was reading it. Now that I see it has the word "Liars" in it, the book makes more sense. It's about liars. I like the book a 1/2 star better than I did before remembering the title.

The story is about a dysfunctional family fooling itself at every turn. Each family member lies to him/herself and, in turn, to each other. And it's not the kind of lying that's obvious; it's a self-preservation technique, yet it crumbles rather than coheres the family. On the other hand, some of the lying is so obvious that it's hard to believe its believed. 

I enjoyed the point in the book when the reader is finally let in on the biggest lie perpetuated by the two teen children in the family. Once it is revealed, the mother's self-denial becomes more apparent and more dysfunctional.

The mother's lie to her children comes to light later in the story; however, it's revealed in too obvious a manner. It felt the plot point that allowed this lie to emerge lacked narrative creativity (been there, done that). 

The story includes sex, and drugs, and boozy beach parties. These feel gratuitously included to "appeal" to teen readers.

Finally, the ending was abrupt. The only truth to the story is that no one wins in the end, including the reader. 

Book review: All Our Broken Pieces by L. D. Crichton

Publishing date: May 7, 2019

Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I didn't think I'd enjoy a sappy love story, but that's OK, because this wasn't sappy. I really liked these believable characters. Kyler was very romantic, and Lennon made for a very good example of how to understand OCD in others.

The OCD portion of the story was handled very well, both normalizing and explaining how it's not normal, or rather when it's not normal... when it interferes or embarrasses or makes others uncomfortable. The facial disfigurement part of the story was not quite as revealing as far as creating empathy, but it did allow for some insight.

Even though most YA novels entail hyperbolic parents, and All Our Broken Pieces is no exception, the author did a good job of reining in the parental extremes and bringing them back down to sensible characters. Any characters are good who can admit when they are wrong, and these adult characters do just that. Graciously, too.

I'll probably shelve this acquisition for my high school library in our "death/drugs/disease" genre sticker category, but it could easily just be categorized as realistic fiction or romance. In any event, I'm looking forward to recommending this title to my students.

One of Us by Tawni O'Dell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books for this suspense-filled mystery advance e-book . Danny Doyle was born and raised in a coal mining town (Lost Creek, PA) and continues to struggle with many demons from his childhood; being bullied in school and at home by his alcoholic father, and a mother, mentally unstable who is jailed for the death of her week old child and continuing nightmares throughout his life about the mines and his dead sister. Present day Danny is renowned as Sheridan Doyle, a forensic psychologist for the Philadelphia DA’S office. When Danny returns home for a visit to his recently recovered ninety something grandfather, he revisits the gallows where miners were hung in the 1800s and he finds the dead body of the new owner. At this same time, Scarlet Dawes, rich daughter of the mines, unexpectedly returns to Lost Creek. Rafe, the only detective in town and father figure to Danny find the suicide note but this is murder and they have to be extremely careful with this killer. As they delve into facts and many who believe the executed miners have ghosts; the reader is propelled into the world of a psychotic serial killer on the loose with everyone a target. I couldn’t put this down; especially enjoyable was reading from Danny and Scarlet’s viewpoints. Where Danny was methodical, lucid and vulnerable; Scarlet was devious, crafty, and had no remorse. The descriptions of the mines (the workers, their families and the owners) in the 1800s and present day were horrific. Lost Creek was a town you wanted to run away from with its family secrets, lies, and torments. For a mesmerizing glimpse into the workings of serial killers’ minds, this book will hold you captive until the last page. A great advanced read from NetGalley!


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Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Rory and the Goodreads Group, YA Reads For Teachers (And Any Other Adults) for this MUST read book, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass by Meg Medina. From the first sentence, “Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass” (just like the title) to the last sentence, “And I’ve found my rhythm at last-strong and simple, constant and mine,” I was riveted and sickened by Piddy Sanchez’s plight of being in a new school and being threatened by a bully on the first day. Piddy doesn’t know Yaqui and therefore is clueless about why Yaqui is out to get her. Yaqui has a group of girls who terrorize Piddy at school and at her after school job. Worse to come is the brutal fight when Yaqui and her terrorists surprise Piddy on her way home from school, beat her to a pulp, and film the fight as they tear off her shirt. Piddy never tells her mother what has happened (she tells her mother she fell on the steps) but she does confide in her aunt and makes her swear not to tell anyone. As a result of this fight, Piddy loses herself. She begins to fail her classes, cut school, and her personality begins to change. What will happen to Piddy? This is a book for all high school students; one girl’s life was drastically changed as a result of the continued harassment she endured. I highly recommend it for all readers (plus reluctant readers and those who enjoy urban fiction), teachers, and parents. The author suffered through something similar in junior high and this book reaches out to teens and helps them find their dignity again.

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Leap of Faith by Anne Schraff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book I have read in the Urban Underground series. For reluctant readers, this book revolves around Ernesto who is a junior at Cesar Chavez High School and wants to run for Senior Class President. Ernesto is a good kid who goes out of his way to help others. He has been shown this example by his father who goes into the barrio and talks dropouts into returning to school. One day there is a robbery and Ernesto sees a hooded, tatooed guy he knows as Cruz Lopez who hangs around Paul Gonzales. He mentions to Paul his suspicions and Paul makes Ernesto promise to keep it to himself about what he saw because Paul is convinced Cruz would never do something like this. While Ernesto is trying to run his campaign, he still worries Cruz could have been involved in the robbery, as well as stopping rumors that Clay started to hurt his election. Ernesto has a great girlfriend in Naomi, and good friends and a supportive family. Students will enjoy the characters in this slim novel and Ernesto's quest to represent his class.

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Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vidya is an Indian girl in the 1940's with a close knit family. Vidya's father is a doctor and she has a mother and a brother. It is during a march when her father helps a woman who has been thrashed by the British soldiers that he is in turn, viciously beaten and is no longer a vibrant doctor but dependent on his family for his every need. Vidya's family must go live with her father's family, work long hours and endure insults and slurs. Vidya once wanted to attend school and even though this seems impossible now, she longs to get an education, which leads her to get permission from her grandfather to "climb the stairs" and spend time reading in the library. Vidya also brings her baby neice while she pores over the many wonderful books. She also meets Raman who seems to like the same books and leads to many long conversations. Her brother decides to go into the army and fight and is banished from his grandfather's home. Vidya can't understand why he is forsaking her and the family. Will Vidya be able to hold onto her dream of becoming educated and bettering the world like her father, or will she be married off in an arranged marriage?

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Trafficked by Kim Purcell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hannah is a seventeen year old from Moldova who has lost both her parents in a bombing. She is brought to the United States by an “agent” and believes she will make $400 per week watching children and going to school to learn English and finish her education. This book shows slowly but surely how Hannah learns the real truth behind her trip to the United States. She toils long days doing housework and watching Maggie and Michael while their mother studies to become a doctor. Her husband Sergey is involved in some kind of shady business. Hannah is not allowed outside, she must speak only Russian to the children and the family is not paying her. As Hannah remains isolated, she uses her inner grit and determination to survive this slave existence.

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Dead to You by Lisa McMann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OMG I am not really sure about the ending, I can't stop thinking about it, so that makes it all the more compelling. Ethan was abducted when he was 6 years old and 9 years later is reunited with his family; mom, dad, Blake and litle siter, Gracie (who was so cute with her lisp- Efon for Ethan and momsters for monsters- SO CUTE!) He has no memory of his early life and it is not easy going from his life with Eleanor...to a normal family and lots of rules (that resulted after Ethan was abducted) This is a thin book with short chapters, I was succked in and reluctant readers will love this book, but I am still reeling about the ending. You have to read it yourself and decide!

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The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved LaCour's Hold Still and boy did I love this one too! Colby is such a great narrator. He loves Bev, she has been his best friend since forever and he can't wait to go on tour with her all girl band, The Disenchantments, before he and Bev tour Europe. They have decided not to go to college like everyone else. The other band members are Alexa(younger sister to Meg and still in high school) and Meg (will be dropped off to college at the end of the band's tour )while Colby is the driver of his uncle's prized Melinda, set-up guy and go to guy for everyone. He is an awesome artist, so is Bev, which makes it even more difficult when Bev acts very strange at the start of the tour and tells Colby she applied to RISD and will attend in the fall!!! Colby is stunned because Bev gives him no explanation, but Meg and Alexa make him feel great. They go to some interesting stops on their tour, get involved in trying to solve a tattoo mystery, and meet some "different" people, places, etc. There were so many great quotes, Colby SEES things and his comments are insightful, thoughtful, yet you know he is clamoring to find some meaning in this tour and what should he do now that they are not going to Europe. The more I found out about Colby's friends and what made them unique, LaCour's writing, setting, characters were all so memorable. I am not into tattoes, still am not after reading this book, but I do like the murals and graffitti artistry. Recommended!

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Exposed by Kimberly Marcus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Liz is a great photographer, a senior with a loyal boyfriend, and best friend forever in Kate since they were six years old. But all of this changes when their once a month slumber party is marred with a fight. Liz accuses Kate of being too comfortable and never taking a chance, their argument ends in Liz angry and stomping up to her room, leaving Kate in the basement. What happens next is open to interpretation. This novel in verse reminded me of the Alex Flinn book, Fade to Black where the reader is not sure who is telling the truth...this is what happens in Exposed and Liz's lens of the world changes, and she begins to lose her moral compass. A great read for girls, reluctant readers, and anyone who likes novels in verse.

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Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The young teens in Hopkins’ novel, a companion to Triangles, make decisions for love that alter their lives. In this engrossing novel in verse; teens deal with issues gripping and devastating such as HIV, pregnancy, sexting, and the death of a family member. The book uses profanity and graphic sex in order to drive home the reality that love/sex is harsh and reminds teens to be more deliberate and smart. Fans of Hopkins will LOVE this book


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Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't stop laughing with and at Jack Gantos in this sweetly humorous book! After playing with his father's old Japanese army souvenirs and firing a loaded rifle (he had no idea it was loaded)Jack is grounded for the summer by his mother. He will remain in his room all summer reading history books except to go help old Miss Volker around her house. What ends up happening is that Jack writes Miss Volker's dictated obituaries, types them up, and runs them to the newspaper to be published. Miss Volker is bent on delivering her promise to Eleanor Roosevelt to euolgize all the original Norvelt inhabitants. There is a lively cast of characters and the summer days of Jack Gantos in Norvelt, PA just fly by. Mr. Spizz is trying to romance Miss Volker, who wants none of it. Jack's mom makes meals for the elderly and barters for goods and services, rather than pay cash. "She always used the newspaper for place mats because she didn't like to waste anything/" Jack's Dad has a job, buys a plane, has Jack dig a huge hole for a bomb shelter and starts moving the old empty Norvelt homes to new destinations. Jack's best friend, Bunny Huffer, doesn't take too kindly to Jack's house prison sentence because it really impedes their baseball games. Her father is the mortician and she has lots of dead person jokes that crack Jack up. I especially enjoyed Jack's nosebleeds and Miss Volker's attempts to stop the bleeding. This is a great boy book, reluctant reader and girls will enjoy Jack Gantos' characters in this historical, humorous, small town semi-true-fiction story. It has all the elements of a great read. Highly recommended!

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Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wicked Girls is a great novel in verse exploring the Salem Witch Trials and the young girls who were called seers and were taken over by witches that these girls named. The witches were put in jail and then on trial. Hemphill does a good job of setting up the world in which these girls lived and the fact that the French and Indian War was involved; some were servants and others were a little more privileged. Strict religion and piety were very important and there was too much punishment by parents and relatives of very physical beatings. I think Anne Putnam was the most needy and in the end the girl I disliked the most because she became very arrogant and if she didn't like someone, Anne and her mother would come up with names of "witches" to punish. Hemphill ends the book with a listing of the real girls and what happened to them. She gives the names and a hsitory of the real people accused by the girls, an authors note that I find very helpful concerning research and trying to decide what theories were plausible and what were not.

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The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Libba Bray’s The Diviners was thrilling to read; I did not want to rip myself away from the 1920s world Bray crafted of flappers, murder, mystery and an impending evil that is being felt by the diviners (those who have supernatural powers to see, feel and predict). Evie is seventeen, bored with her restricted family life but also aware she has powers, which she sometimes uses at parties to liven things up. This gets her into trouble and she is shipped off to live with her Uncle Will in NYC as a punishment. Uncle Will is a college professor who also owns the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. As soon as she reaches NY, Evie accompanies the police with her Uncle Will and his student, Jericho, to the scene of a murder and it is when she touches the dead girl’s shoe buckle that she sees the girl’s murderer. It is in this bustling NYC that we also meet many other characters with powers and pasts they want hidden; Theta, Memphis, Isaiah, Blind Bill and Miss Walker. What is particularly mesmerizing and unpleasant is evil of Naughty John Hobbes; as more are murdered Evie, her Uncle Will and Jericho try to unravel a mystery that involves ghosts, haunted houses, demons, and evil in 1920s New York. I can’t wait for the second book!

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