A friend was looking to make room on her bookshelf and asked if I was interested in this book. It seemed like the right age level for my 10 year old and she likes slightly creepy stuff so this seemed perfect. What I didn’t realize at the time was it is a choose your own adventure book. Yesterday I was looking for a quick read and as this had Frankenstein in the title it was seasonally appropriate. Opening it I realized the nature of the […]
Two parents, a girl, a ghost, and a ticked-off cat
CBR10 BINGO: And So It Begins I added this to my hold list at the library months before the publication date and I STILL had to wait a month for it. Behold the power of Victoria Schwab! I loved her Shades of Magic series (as V.E. Schwab) and liked her YA Monsters of Verity series so it was a no brainer for me to snatch this one up. After a near death experience where she is “rescued” by a ghost, Cass is able to sense […]
Run Toward Who You Want To Be
Last month, Trevor Noah interviewed Jason Reynolds on the Daily Show and even before I had read any of his books, I became a fan. He talked about writing, reading, and young people in a powerful way and made a strong argument for the need to write books that would have spoken to him as a young teen growing up in the inner city. I’ve been a follower of the We Need Diverse Books organization and without mentioning the hashtag, Reynolds made their argument with […]
Revolutionary War Goonies
I have always enjoyed YA and Middle Grade novels, a good book is a good book regardless of its target audience. However, I keenly felt all through reading 7th Grade Revolution that I was most definitely not the target audience and that a younger person would have enjoyed the book a lot more then I did. That’s not to say that it’s a bad book, it’s not, it’s just not one that crosses the demographic from young reader to adult reader well. It’s a perfectly […]
Goonies never say die!
The 7th graders at Washington Academy Middle School “stage” a coup (read, are assigned to create a 7th grade experience after a bloodless revolution) and spend a chapter or so trying to determine what an optimal 7th grade experience would be (by committee). While voting on a proposal, the 7th graders discover that the FBI has, surreptitiously, evacuated the rest of the school and are preparing to search for a treasure of national importance. What ensues is a race against the clock as the 7th […]
A Fly By Any Other Name
Fly by Night is Frances Hardinge’s first novel, but the third or fourth novel of hers that I’ve read. I liked it, and I definitely think that it’s one of the better middle grade novels out there, however it’s not my favorite of her books. Twelve year old Mosca, who is orphaned, lives with her uncle and is smarter than most of the people in her little town. Her best friend is the goose Saracen, because outcasts stick together. When the smooth talking con-man Eponymous […]