HOSSEINI, Khaled Hosseini’s poignant story is brilliantly retold in this graphic novel. The author has provided the text; enhanced by Celoni and Andolfo’s artwork, the account of the complicated friendship between Hassan and Amir, two boys of very different social classes, carries all of the power and emotion of the original. Amir’s story continues, framed by changes in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion, the subsequent Taliban takeover, and his journeys to Pakistan, the United States, and back to Afghanistan as he struggles to understand what it will take to “be good again.” The artists use a realistic illustration style and different palettes to add dimension to the story. Richer colors for the early days of Amir Read more…

From graphic novel blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Rick Geary’s Sacco and Vanzetti isn’t just a question of who-really-dunnit, but a fine exposure of how prejudice, temper, arrogance, and even regionalism played their roles in the messed up trial the pair of Italian immigrants got after they were arrested for murder during a daylight robbery in 1920 Massachusetts. Accuracy during the evidence collection phase was a bit sloppy, but its tattered remains during the trial and then during the appeals process are shown by Geary as being criminally negligent. As is his typical method, Geary provides exquisite levels of detail within highly compressed space: he shows us how some witnesses couldn’t possibly see what they claim, what Read more…

So, what happened to yesterday’s big-deal coppers? And how do they handle the death of a has-been arch-nemesis? Through the story, art, and perfect coloring of this creative team, readers get a satisfying look at the possibilities: retired big-city police detective Kane, known as The Spook, learns of the demise of his 1940-ish era rival, Mr. Murder, and can’t help both investigating and ruminating. In passages that alternate between then and now, readers get a purposefully and pun-laden stereotypical journey through how detective comics used to read and what a couple of angry old guys–the Spook has a sidekick, of course, in equally retired former Captain Chung–can unearth in the present. The real story, however, is whether Read more…

Welcome to this week’s big fiction debut, and it could not be more suited to young adult readers. For the gamers and science fiction fans (but not only the gamers and science fiction fans) this is likely to be the book of the year. With a place on several best of the month lists, including the Entertainment Weekly Must List, they may well come looking for it. I had a chance to hear Ernie Cline speak at BookExpo. He seems quite humble, with a self-effacing manner and quiet sense of humor. Cline is a screenwriter, so he began with a quick anecdote about loving his public library as a kid — where his usual check-outs included a pile of VHS tapes and one book. He was inspired to write a book after writing screenplays that never ended Read more…

By Martyn Bedford One December night, 14-year-old Alex goes to  bed. He wakes up to  find himself in the wrong bedroom, in an unfamiliar house, in a different part of the country, and it’s the middle of June. Six months have disappeared overnight. The family at the breakfast table are total strangers. And when he looks in the mirror, another boy’s face stares back at him.  A boy named Flip. A charmer, an athlete and a slacker, Flip is foreign to Alex, a chess player and clarinetist who’s never kissed a girl. Unless Alex finds out what’s happened and how to get back to his own life,  he may be trapped forever inside a body that belongs to someone else. While keeping up with the demands of Flip’s lifestyle – as well as Read more…

What does the term “teen appeal” really mean? What is that elusive quality that draws a teenager to a book? This question may be the Holy Grail that a young adult librarian will ponder for a lifetime, and one blog entry won’t even come close to defining it. However, I thought I might make more progress illuminating this question if I removed my reviewer’s hat and put on my journalist’s hat to interview teens about their impressions of newly published books. This time, the teens who were most willing to participate in my study all happened to be boys in 9th and 10th grade.  Although they aren’t diverse in gender, these ten readers are diverse in ethnicity and reading taste, and I highly value their literary opinion. So Read more…

by Schmidt, GaryHolling Hoodhood has a lot on his mind. He’s got to deal with bullies, cream puffs, religion, flower children, nuclear war, and escaped rats — not to mention yellow tights with feathers on the butt. There’s also his 7th grade teacher, Mrs. Baker, who hates his guts. Why else would she make him run wind sprints or read Shakespeare outside of class? Told with warmth, humor, and uncommon sensitivity, The Wednesday Wars tells the story of the dramatic events of 1967-68, as well as the dramatic events of a year in the life of one seventh-grade boy. You won’t want to leave the excitement, uncertainty, friendship, and fun of Camillo Junior High. Highly recommended for middle school readers.- reviewed by Rebecca, Matthews Read more…

The Fan Letter by Lee Child They say the past is another country, and in my case it really was: provincial England at the end of the fifties and the start of the sixties, the last gasp of the post-war era, before it surrendered to the tectonic shift sparked by the Beatles.  My family was neither rich nor poor, not that either condition had much meaning in a society with not much to buy and not much to lack.  We accumulated toys at the rate of two a year: one on our birthdays, and one at Christmas.  We had a big table radio (which we called "the wireless") in the dining room, and in the living room we had a black and white fishbowl television, full of glowing tubes, but there were only two channels, and Read more…

There’s a good chance you’ve heard of Chris Wooding. Perhaps you’re familiar with his gritty realistic YA titles, Crashing and Kerosene, published in the U.S. under Scholastic’s Push imprint—the first when he was just 19. Or maybe you’ve read one of his fantasies: The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray and Poison still circulate regularly among my readers, and Alaizabel has been optioned and may make it to a screen near you one of these days. More recently, the creatively packaged novel – graphic novel mashup Malice (and sequel Havoc) brought Wooding to the attention of tweens. The guy is prolific! In his native England, he’s published even more, including quite a few fantasy titles for the adult market. Retribution Falls, book 1 Read more…

By Don Calame This is a laugh-out-loud funny book about 3 teen guys who have one goal for the summer: to see a real-live naked girl. Since Matt and his friends don’t even have the nerve to ask a girl out on a date, this presents quite a challenge. This hilarious book includes mishaps due to a powerful new laxative while dressing up like girls and going into the women’s locker room, an eccentric and somewhat sadistic swim instructor, and an ill-fated trip to a nude beach. Matt’s friends are not the only ones getting him into crazy predicaments. Throughout the book Grandpa Arlo requests Matt’s help in his plan to woo the recently widowed Mrs. Hoogenboom. Unfortunately, he chooses Mr. Hoogenboom’s funeral as the perfect time to put his Read more…

Meg Howrey’s debut is a coming-of-age novel about a boy–for a change!  My favorite quote about this novel comes from Meg herself, on the Largehearted Boy blog, “Somewhere along the way, what started as a kind of spin on classic heroes journeys and test-and-quest myths also became a love story between this father and son.” There are several appeal factors for teen readers here, including the lure of Hollywood, Luke’s engaging character, his sense of humor, and his attempts at writing the perfect college essay. HOWREY, Meg. Blind Sight. 304p. Pantheon. 2011. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-307-37916-0. LC number unavailable.   Adult/High School–For all of his 17 years, Luke has lived in a family of women. His mother, Sara, a Read more…

By Orson Scott Card Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him — secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain. Rigg’s birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent . . . or forfeit Read more…

By Chris Lynch In Hothouse: A Novel, we have a son-father relationship that will almost simultaneously warm your heart and chill you to the bone. "Are ya winnin’?" Dad would ask of Russ. Dad was winning. He was part of a dynamic duo of fire fighters. Russ loved him and planned to follow in Dad’s footsteps. He is already training as a junior fire fighter. And then the horrific happens: Dad and his partner are killed in a fire. Outrageous Courageous is how they are branded by their fellow firemen and the rest of this tightly knit community. Russ is lifted up by their support, but still misses his Dad and often reflects on their times together fixing massive breakfasts, climbing, fishing without hopes of catching fish. Read more…

Yes, this is a baseball story. If you aren’t a fan, some of the passages will go over your head like foul ball, but the thing is, you won’t care. You’ll be too engrossed in the story. The next thing you’ll know, the story will be over and you will feel a sense of satisfaction and completion. This novella is a very fun and very fast read. For sports fans that love King, this book will probably be a dream come true. For King fans that don’t like sports… it is a new King story! I’ll admit, I don’t really care too much for baseball. I know it. I’ve played it, but I don’t watch it. Yet, I still really enjoyed this story. In the end, it is a story about the people, not the game. Yes, the book is short, but you will enjoy it. This is a Read more…

Jack Reacher, 6 feet 5 inches tall, 250 pounds, with a 50 inch chest, dirty-blond hair, ice blue eyes. Multiple scars from shrapnel, bullets and knives. A stone cold killer when he has to be. A West Point graduate, 13 years as an army investigator, the best of the best. Now he’s a drifter, his only possessions a foldable toothbrush and an expired passport. He buys new clothes every few days and throws the old ones out…Reacher travels light. He has an imaginary iPod in his head which he uses to listen to music and is addicted to coffee. Although he does not have super powers, Reacher sure seems like a super hero with abnormally fast reactions. He’s a superior tactician – he always knows the other guy’s position and what he is Read more…

By Jordan Sonnenblick It has been a long haul for Jeffrey. He has been in remission from leukemia for some time. What a lot of people do not know, though, are the after effects of the toxic drugs that, while they kill cancer, are sometimes indiscriminate in the other cells they destroy and damage. So taking toxins to cure one disease can leave someone like Jeffrey with some other obstacles including a bit of a learning difficulty when it comes to math. It is not sufficient that Jeffrey has to deal with his own challenges, now there is a new one: he might not go to high school unless he passes the new state tests. After Ever After handles with aplomb so many topics and issues. Ones from the mundane and almost predictable: friendship, Read more…

By Peter Abrahams Sixteen yr old Cody has hit hard times. His girlfriend is sent away to a private school, he gets injured during a game and can’t play football, his grades are a mess, and he’s in trouble at work. When he think things can’t get worse, his girlfriend turns up missing from her school; it’s all over the news, and the authorities aren’t finding any leads. Cody decides to go look for her himself, and discovers that things are not always as they appear. If you are looking for a well-written page turner, Peter Abrahams delivers with Reality Check (Laura Geringer Books) – it’s a twisty, exciting read! – Reviewed by S. Read more…

By David MacInnis Gill Jake, aka Durango, has taken on a fool’s mission that sends him and his davos off to Fisher Four. They believe they are supposed to defeat the Draeu, Of course, there are complications in this sci-fi meets film noir meets kung fu feature with elements that resonate from classic novels and sci-fi flicks. And that is all of the plot I care to relate, as it is better experienced firsthand than seen here. I will say that, while there is non-stop action, the real story lies within the interplay of Jake and his crew, especially the ones closest to him, Mimi and Vienne. Romance, intrigue, betrayal, narrow escapes, and so much more await readers in Black Hole Sun . And wait for the wonderful word play here, too. Read more…

By Ted Bell A thrilling sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Nick of Time, in which the young time traveler Nick McIver must prove his courage once more, on two fronts: in World War II-era England, where Nazis have invaded his homeland, and in America during the Revolution, where Nick stands shoulder to shoulder with General George Read more…

by Dan Allosso This book is a badass teen book. I mean it tops all other teen books, because this is the real deal. It really goes out to the teens — I mean it’s like a book that just jumps out at you. It can go out to everyone’s life. It’s just that cool. – Aaron M. Reid generally likes to keep a low profile. His parents are hard-working, well-paid executives who keep their son surrounded with the latest and greatest of everything. His mother shops for him in the best clothing stores, making sure he has the coolest designer labels. His father designs game programs for a popular company, so it’s no surprise when a brand new Wii shows up in the well-equipped basement rec room. At first Reid doesn’t show much interest. If it’s Read more…

By BrentCrawford Freshman Will Carter is googly-eyed over everything about high school (did we mention the girls?), and his ADD just makes it worse—no matter what’s going on, it only takes seconds for his imagination to devolve into fantasies about G-strings, exposed navels, and “tig ol’ biddies.” His toughest challenges quickly reveal themselves: gynormous athletes wanting to flatten him, friends intent on humiliating him, and Abby, the no-longer-fat drill-team hottie who seems to get a real charge out of slapping him in public. There’s barely a plot to speak of, and Crawford relies heavily on stock social situations. But his stream-of-consciousness, first-person narrative flails around in an excellent imitation of a Read more…

By Matt Tavares Henry Aaron’s Dream shines a light on the childhood of Hank Aaron. The opening illustration depicts the racial divisions of the era. Henry longs to play baseball, but it is a whites only sport at the time. When Jackie Robinson crosses the color barrier, Henry dares to get his hopes up a bit. Page by lustrous double page spread, readers will learn of the tenacity and patience that it took to suffer the ill treatment players of color faced in those early days of integration. Tavares pulls no punches as he describes the name-calling and rock-throwing that dogged Aaron up to the threats he received as he approached Babe Ruth’s record. Great appended materials fill out the story of this amazing slugger. Review by Read more…