By: tanita davis,
on 4/10/2013
The adventures I have, when I randomly buy, pick up, or otherwise gank books! Once again, I am SUPER EXCITED because I've found another Cybils contender so early in the year. I'm a Luddite at heart, and I have had access to ereaders for years, but... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 4/10/2013
ALL RIGHT. I know I say this every time, but I ♥ Tu Books. It's just the kind of publishing company so many people were waiting for - because where else can you tell your crazy YA tales of monsters, the Malleus Maleficarum - the Spanish... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 3/26/2013
It was amusingly ridiculous, the trouble it took to get a copy of this book. First, I thought I'd already reviewed it, years ago. Turns out I'd reviewed another of the author's novels (and hadn't even labeled that one properly, so almost didn't find... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 3/5/2013
Well, you know what they say about middle books.No? You don't? Well, "they" usually say that in any trilogy, the middle book is awful - that it doesn't give you any new information, and that it doesn't do anything but take up space. Sometimes this... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 3/4/2013
Reader Gut Reaction: I've been meaning to read Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities for quite a while, because the author, Mike Jung, is an online buddy and avid blogger, and he's also local to the Northern California area and this is his debut. After... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 2/19/2013
Well, this one has a nice, succinct title, doesn't it? FREAKS. Misfits. Mutants. This is a strangely compelling but freakish little work, first published in Britain in 2011, and winner of The Times/Chicken House Publishing Children’s Fiction... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 2/18/2013
Reader Gut Reaction: I don't post about too many middle grade titles—to be perfectly honest, I don't read as many MG books as I do YA—so it's kind of ironic that I read this book a couple of weeks ago and then realized I should wait to post... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 2/12/2013
Well, sure we all know who Rosemary Wells is. She's the one who does the bunnies! The adorable bunnies! The cuddly bunnies! The fabulous Ruby and Max! Oh, and Nora, Yoko, and McDuff, too, but mostly we know her from Ruby and Max. So, how did we go... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 2/1/2013
Honestly? This is kind of a hard book to review. Not because of the plot - the story's there, all right - but because it's hard to convey whose side we should be on. Do the bad guys really mean harm? Is the narrative - in juvie, thanks - at all... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 12/17/2012
Reader Gut Reaction: I enjoyed the first book in this duet, Trickster's Girl (reviewed here) a lot more than I expected to, so I was pleased to find the second book was available in my library so soon after I read the first one (no waiting ages for... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 12/15/2012
I've got school story-itis. I LOVE and adore school stories. Boarding school stories are EVEN BETTER. I don't know why - I went to boarding school and know it to be a peculiar sort of hell, but somewhere in my head I'm still expecting to find... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 11/30/2012
Written by a woman who can channel the voice of younger teen guys, this novel says "Boyhood Dreams" all over it. I loved the outright wish-fulfillment bits of this novel. I mean, this kid goes from being a nobody to being a hero -- from fairly weak... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 9/27/2012
We've talked about role-playing games, or RPG and now we've segued into chatting about a gamer book by Ned Vizzini. This is a review repost in honor of Mr. Vizzini's blog tour, so enjoy again! And if you're here reading for the first time,... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 7/6/2012
You thought I'd forgotten about you, didn't you? I started talking about role-playing games, or RPG and mentioned a book - but spent too much time talking about a movie to get into it. Now I'm ready to talk books. You know how you get sort of a... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 5/5/2012
When I read The Enchanted Inkpot's piece on Sybil Nelson this past February, I was, to put it mildly, GOBSMACKED. Okay, it's not as if there aren't people of color writing comic book style novels - but my interest here piqued because the character... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 4/30/2012
I really enjoyed reading Philip Reeve's 2010 novel (and Cybils SFF Finalist) Fever Crumb, with its post-apocalyptic feel and its enigmatic main character. Little did I know that Fever Crumb was actually a prequel to Reeve's first novel, Mortal... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 4/24/2012
It's officially Spring. Means it's time for a band novel. Or, something like that.Not as many of these crossing my reading space these days, and when I saw the punky cover on this one, I had to smile."What drew you to it?" CitySmartGirl asked me... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 4/9/2012
I've gotta be honest with you—lately I've been so busy that fitting in a blog post even twice a week has seemed like an impossibly Everestian endeavor, so today I'm just going to offer a few brief, informal reviews, catching up on a couple of... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 3/29/2012
Reader Gut Reaction: I tend to think there needs to be more contemporary-setting fantasy for the middle grade/younger YA set—without vampires or werewolves, thank you very much—and I particularly like to see fantasy novels with multicultural... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 3/2/2012
It has to be every once in a great big blue moon that we'll do a middle grade review on this blog, mainly because AF, Citysmart Girl and I write YA lit and tend to limit our reading choices in that direction. However, CSG has two wee boys, and one... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 3/1/2012
Doug TenNapel, who the increasingly aged among us may remember as the creator of the video game character Earthworm Jim, has written several graphic novels by now, which have gotten quite a bit of positive buzz; however, Bad Island is the first one... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 10/27/2011
This book is a 2011 Cybils nominee for graphic novels.Reader Gut Reaction: This is a graphic novel about a book challenge, and the valiant readers who fight that challenge. So I was already predisposed to like it. Main character Neil Barton lives in... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 9/12/2011
Dear FCC: I got a review copy of this book from the publisher.In my opinion, there is a shortage of good mystery novels for young readers. When I was growing up, I loved mysteries, but once I got tired of kids' mysteries like Nancy Drew and the... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 8/15/2011
Dear FCC: I checked this book out at the library.In The Piper's Son, Melina Marchetta returns to the same set of characters from Saving Francesca (reviewed here), five years later. After some serious family trauma, Tom Mackee is in bad shape. He's... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 7/26/2011
While this book isn't marketed specifically to YA audiences, the main characters are in their very early twenties, fresh out of wizarding school.If you're a fan of Terry Pratchett's Rincewind character, or ever wondered about life post-Hogwarth's... Read the rest of this post
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Tanita,
I'm so glad you loved Ghost Hand. Thanks for the amazing review. It had me laughing and feeling proud, and thanks for turning me on to the Cybils. I think I can remember to remind you concerning them in October:)