Vampires & werewolves are all the rage (blame Stephanie Meyers), and this supernatural tale about a slightly odd town named Nightshade stands out as lightweight treatment of things that go bump in the night.

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A summer internship at a women’s magazine introduces Long Island ingénue Chrissy Gibbons to the glamorous world of high fashion at a fast pace.

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Thing to do while waiting the final 10 days before Breaking Dawn's release...

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This fantasy adventure tale has a heroine, a journey, a good vs. evil battle, and heart throbbing romance. Ultimately, though, it is a story of self-discovery, and dare I say it, identity.

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This is a book that I read even though I knew it would make me cry. It is the story of Tessa, who is sixteen years old and dying. She has stopped going to school because of how sick she is, and now only wants to live out her remaining time like any t

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*****On a trip to Wales to study photography and earn her graduate degree, KayLynn Deveney stumbled across Albert Hastings, and old man who lived alone in an apartment near where she was staying. In getting to know him, she realized that Albert was a

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Any teen book that includes Shakespeare's plays as essentially a main character is one that I am going to appreciate. In this coming of age story, set in 1967, Holling Hoodhood initially believes that his exposure to Shakespeare is some sort of p

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*****This behemoth of a graphic novel is a new favorite of mine. I have a weakness for attractive book covers (see previous entry for example of unattractive book cover). Exhibit A:  *Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon. I saw this book when it f

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****First off, I admit that I did, in fact, judge this book by its cover. It has a shiny, silver cover and pink silhouettes of two girls. It kind of screamed THIS BOOKS IS PROBABLY SHALLOW (it's the shininess). However, after reading the first pa

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*****Many of my co-workers will jaw your ear off about how wonderful John Green is. He is placed upon the pedestal of young adult literature far above criticism and slander. His previous books, An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska, both

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****Beth Lisick spends a year trying to improve herself in Helping Me Help Myself. In order to achieve this goal of self-improvement, she turns to the path many people discover every day. The self-improvement section in the bookstore! While legitimat

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***When a mysterious young man arrives to stay in the middle of the night, sixteen year old Tiffany does not take much notice. She has her own problems. Her mother recently left her father for another man, her father and her are fighting and she is n

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 Welcome to day four of the Mélanie Watt (US) blog tour! Our interview with Mélanie follows. Hip Librarian's Book Blog: Mélanie , what is your writing process?Mélanie Watt: I usually start with an initial top

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 ***Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow live in the city of Ember, where lightbulbs are the only source of light. They are surrounded on each side by total darkness and because they have no way of creating a movable light (i.e. a flashlight), no one h

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Matthews, Elizabeth. Different Like Coco.  Candlewick Press, 2007. 32 pp.  ISBN 978-0-7636-2548-1. $16.99More than anything, Coco Chanel's life story is a tale about using what you've got and and building on your strengths and resou

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Tune in here April 10 when the Hip Librarian's Book Blog hosts Melanie Watts, author of the Scaredy Squirrel series (Kids Can Press. Submit your questions now about writing, reading and Melanie's thoughts on book reviews.  We'll post

"In the winter you come to the pit to warm your feet in the tar. You stand long enough to sink as far as your ankles - the littler you are, the longer you can stand. . . But in summer, like this day, you keep away from the tar . . . Ikky was tal

Dial/Penguin, New York: 2008 ISBN 978-0-8037-3227-8 $16.99 408 pp Three juniors assigned to write about their "most excellent" year all choose the freshman year they became friends in this coming out/coming of age story that blends bas

 ***Theodosia Throckmorton (Theo for short), the young daughter of the curator of the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London, is very busy these days. The year is 1906, and the world’s western powers are busily excavating the treasure

This was one of those books that I could not put down, and that finishing was more difficult than usual. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite writers, who passed away last year, the same year that Fledgling was published. When I finished reading Fled

This book still hit me like a train even though I knew what was coming. It’s hard not to be exposed to the news stories about teachers that are arrested for sexually molesting a student. You don’t necessarily hear about how it happened-or

People notice different things. When I visited Australia, my friend and I pointed out to each other all the ‘avatars’ we saw walking around (people that literally had wings on and appeared larger than life). A friend I went to a bookstore

  In a small village in 17th century Iran, a girl's parents start searching for a suitable man for her to marry. But when her father dies unexpectedly, the girl and her mother lose all prospects of a comfortable life. They move to Isfah

Best friends Lissa Dragomir and Rose Hathaway are on the run from their boarding school St. Vladimir's Academy, hiding from the well-meaning but misguided Guardians of the school and the evil vampires the Strigoi.  Lissa is a Moroi princess,