Book Review: Taking Up Space by Alyson Gerber

 

Taking Up Space by Alyson Gerber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Wunderkind for an ARC of this book.

An honest and emotional portrayal of a young girl struggling with the ways her body is changing and what this means to her life’s passion, basketball.

When 12-year-old, Sarah doesn’t hit her marks on the court, she’s sure it because she isn’t eating healthy, or what her mother terms as healthy. But Sarah’s mother has had her own issues with food.

Sometimes she forgets to make dinner. Or pick up snacks for her sleepover, or stock the refrigerator. But she’s always there to watch Sarah’s games and they love reading and decoding detective stories.

Half of Sarah’s teammates suspect something (and they aren’t very nice about it) when she isn’t eating, but it’s her BFF that steps in and tells their coach.

When the boy she crushes on asks to be her partner in a cooking competition, she learns how much she enjoys cooking and she can take control of what she eats and stand up for what she needs at home in order to feel safe and confident. 

Sarah comes to an understanding about food, that no food is bad. It just is. 

Within this book, are many important conversations about food, body image, and self-worth, written in a  natural and compelling, heartfelt voice. 

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MG Book Review: Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh.

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reposted from my review on the Kidliteri Blog

Twelve-year-old Harper Raine and her family have relocated from New York City to DC during the heat of summer. There’s much to get used to, the incessant heat, and the “gothic charm” of their new house and the renovations.

Her four-year-old brother, Michael is oblivious, and it’s very strange that his room is cold with an unnatural chill when she visits, and he tells her about his new friend, Billy, pointing to a corner.

Michael is frustrated Harper can’t see him. His words trigger a memory of Harper’s when she was five-years-old when she had a best friend her older sister couldn’t see either.
“Billy doesn’t like when you call his house stupid.”

Harper covers for Michael when he tries telling their mother. She doesn’t like things she can’t understand. Harper doesn’t understand either.

Nothing has been the same since Harper’s accident. Reviewing her memory book, an "unfinished jigsaw puzzle", that had one missing piece. Unable to remember anything about the fire at school, when she was hospitalized with several broken bones. "It’s what the mind does to forget terrible tragedy." Did she really want to remember what happened?

With the move, Harper’s Korean grandmother lives closer, and she can’t wait to see her. But her mother won’t speak to her. She hasn’t in years. Harper misses her grandmother terribly, and through all the hauntings, and missing memories, Harper works to reunite them. Turns out, Grandma has a few surprises.

Ooh, I LOVED this fun, spooky middle-grade book! The ghosts were truly evil and SCARY! Harper has to go through several hoops to save her brother, and her older sister blames her for the move to D.C. One of my favorite scenes is Harper confronting a salesperson who’s a racist, and she sticks up for herself! The author is the founder of “We Need Diverse Books”.

The first in a series, I can’t wait to read the follow-up, ISLAND OF MONSTERS, for more spooky-fun! Out now!










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MG Book Review: Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows

Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati.

Charlie Hernandez’s parents are gone. While waiting at child services for placement, he discovers tiny horns sprouting from his head and recalls the stories his abuela told him night after night, especially those about the Morphling, the myth about a young hero who always defeats his nemesis—an evil twice-cursed witch—by manifesting some kind of an animal trait.

But those were just made up stories.

No longer sleeping at the police station, he’s placed temporarily with the elderly doll collector, Mrs. Wilson, and just when life begins to feel normal again, feathers sprout up all over his body—at middle school! Thinking fast, Charlie ditches into the office and finds a long-sleeve sparkly snow jacket in the lost and found. Wearing a ski jacket during the afternoon in Miami shouldn’t bring any unwanted attention.

Then he runs into Alice-the-Terrible, 6-foot-tall-fastball-crushing all-state softball player—and she wants the locket he’s wearing. The one thing he has left of his mother’s.

Not while Violet Rey is around—super-sleuth-school-newspaper-reporter—with the megawatt smile stops Alice in her tracks. The same girl he’s crushed on since first grade. Turns out, Violet has admired Charlie’s father, the animal geneticist, ever since his presentation on the harm in breeding dogs, she even used it for the school paper. Violet is very curious about his mother’s locket and knows it’s an antique (her father owns a pawn shop). Is there anything Violet doesn’t know? But it’s locked and Charlie’s unable to open it. Violet has a look and it clicks open in seconds. Inside, they find a miniature map, with the same horns and feather insignia Charlie sees everywhere.

Together, they make an unlikely team, and go underground with the tiny map, in search of answers to where Charlie’s parents are, and they come face to face with supernatural villains, myths and folklore from all over the Spanish-speaking world.
Conversations with a calaca, and La Llorona, the weeping woman, after following the glowing orbs of La Luz Mala, deep into the woods, among many others. Charlie discovers the stories his abuela told him were true. Was she preparing him?

An exciting, fast-paced Middle Grade adventure! With friends standing up for each other and working together. I loved Violet’s character and the skills she has when they’re needed and Charlie’s self-deprecating humor. Rich in cultural mythology, and so much fun! For further study of these fascinating tales, the glossary of Spanish folklore is a good starting point. Perfect for fans of Percy Jackson, or anyone who loves magic, adventure, and tracking down a mystery.




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YA Book Review: What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra

What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reposted from my review on The Kidliterati Blog.

Hayden has just turned eighteen, and she’s living on her own for the first time, when she gets a call about the will her mother left. Though her mother is technically missing, not dead.

“My mother remains elusive, in the periphery of my vision—there and not-there, dead and alive, like Schrödinger’s theoretical cat, its state altering the moment I focus on it. It’s been a decade since I last heard Mom’s voice …”

The dreams of her wearing full body armor and riding a horse while leading an army through the fog and ravaged cities, crying We’ll rise again have returned, and what’s with the white ravens that keep appearing in her dreams and real life? Hayden has a lot of questions.

It’s suggested that she keep mum about the will and not mention anything to her father, which may not be difficult considering he’s a physicist with his head buried always in his work. Even though he’d lost his tenure, due to outrageous claims about Nibelungs and multi-dimensional pathways and string theory.

Thank goodness, for her roommate, Del Chauvet, French-Senegalese Brooklynite, and her constant determination to give her a makeover or find her a date, especially since the last one left Hayden stranded. But Del has something special planned for her 18th birthday.

Memories and whispers in a foreign tongue, and Hayden’s mother watching from behind the dark trees surrounding her childhood home wearing a sad smile, as if she knows what’s coming. Hayden’s therapist, Dr. Erich reminds Hayden that those memories are long gone. But Hayden needs answers.

Hiding the will from her father, Hayden and Del leave their Brooklyn apartment to visit her childhood home in Promise, Colorado, and search for the gifts her mother left with the cryptic message:
She needs to listen with her blood. My second condition is that Hayden uses my gifts to destroy my darkest secret—my hidden treasure, my heaviest burden.

When Hayden struggles to understand, she interprets things using theoretical physics, and the author does this beautifully at the start of each chapter with musings of the metaphysical, the forces of gravity, and Murphy’s Law, and how it relates to Hayden’s life.

My kind of genre-mash-up, that twists urban fantasy and science fiction with the creepy factor that comes with a dark woodland mystery along with a gripping pace and self-sacrificing friendships. Quite unlike anything I’ve read before. I’d recommend this book for mature YA readers.



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YA Book Review: Ignite the Stars by Maura Milan

Ignite the Stars by Maura Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reposted from my review on Kidliterati 


Year 8922.

Ia Cocha: Sovereign of Dead Space, Rogue of the Fringe Planets, Blood Wolf of the Skies, the most dangerous criminal in Commonwealth history, and she’s seventeen.

Feared by all—except for maybe the refugees she’s saved in several battles across the universe, among them: the Dvvinn, the Juorti, Makolian, and the Tawnies, all refugees of the Commonwealth, and they’re discriminated against.

Student Brinn Tarver discovers the Blood Wolf is a girl just like her. Brinn hides her identity and her blue refugee hair to blend in with the Commonwealth, or risk persecution. Even if her mother doesn’t hide her blue Tawny hair anymore, Brinn isn’t ready to expose her secret. “She might be a Citizen, but that didn’t matter—the prejudice still exited.”

When Ia Cocha is captured by the Commonwealth and sentenced to fight with the Royal Star Force, she becomes Brinn’s roommate. Brinn is outraged, but soon learns they have much in common, even a brother they’d die for.

We meet Knives, the head flight instructor of the Royal Star Force and son of the cruel General Adams. He carries a deep sadness and Ia Cocha is drawn to him.

Ia Cocha makes a deal with the General to set the Tawny refugees free as she fights for the RSF, where she can survey the entire space academy, its uranium core, and send blueprints to her brother while awaiting rescue. But things don’t go as planned, and Ia has to accept the harm she’s brought to others.

Written from three POV’s, this book is fast paced—you’ll rip through the All Black, view the stars and spaceships—and Ia Cocha is a force to be reckoned with, so is Brinn, both fierce women with death-defying skills. Some of the best action scenes I’ve read, and with its outstanding pace and gripping tension, you’ll fly through this book. There are protests, propaganda, and The Sanctuary Act. The plight of the Commonwealth refugees, as they fight for justice, and a home, parallels the struggle refugees face today.





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MG Book Review: Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older

Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reposted from my review on Kidliterati. 

It’s 1863 at the Colored Orphan Asylum in New York City. Magdalys Roca is not listening to the matron who insists on caller her by the wrong name. Magdalys only answers to her real name, the way her brother said it, like a song, the brother who’s now fighting in the Union Army.

But the Triceratops is waiting to take her and the other orphan children to the Zanzibar Theater to see the only all-black Shakespearean company in New York perform the Tempest. Magdalys decides she not going to allow the matron’s stubbornness have her miss out.

“It was only a few years ago that New York passed a law granting black citizens the right to dinoride.”

Dinosaurs are everywhere. Iguanodons extinguish lanterns before the dawn. Commuter brachys. Stegosaurs lug supplies and microraptors deliver messages, while most of the trikes and raptors have been sent south to the Confederates.

“Magdalys had no idea why anyone would want to keep her from dinoriding just because of the color of her skin.”

On the way to the theater, Magdalys is surprised when she discovers the dinosaur listened to her. That it can hear her thoughts! But she’s keeping it a secret for now.

A riot breaks out and the theater is torched. Pandemonium in the streets, people are murdered, people Magdalys cares about. She narrowly escapes with her life and a few others. But there are more orphans to save before the Kidnappers Club sends south to be sold into slavery. Magdalys and the others barely escape and soon find friends in Brooklyn who will help them rescue the captured children and stop the worldwide kidnapping ring.

“They weren’t just abandoned orphans anymore — they were part of something.”

What a magnificent and wild ride! True events are written within an alternative historical setting, with maps of early New York City. A fun and absorbing way to learn about history and experience the joy of riding dinosaurs to combat evil.

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YA Book Review: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati. 

1822 in the seaside town of Sparrow Oregon, three sisters arrived with hopes of making a new home. The Swan sisters were among the first to settle this seaside town. Three of the most beautiful women ever beheld. They soon became known at temptresses, too irresistible to resist. Rumors gathered that they were witches weaving spells, and a mob of townspeople stormed their perfumery shop, tied stones to the sister’s feet, and threw them into the ocean.

The Swan sisters return every summer seeking revenge, dragging unsuspecting boys back into in the sea with them before the solstice ends.

Two hundred years later, seventeen-year-old, Penny Talbot is apprehensive with another season of finding dead boys in the ocean about to begin. Even though the town celebrates the sisters return with festivals, and tourists flock to the island to witness the spectacle. It’s what the townspeople do to prepare the inevitable.

Penny wants things to be different this year when she meets Bo. He stepped in to rescue her from another boy’s abuse at one of the parties. He’s a stranger to the town just like her father was. Penny’s father disappeared three years ago and her mother suffers, watching out across the water for his return. Bo wants answers to what happened to his brother and Penny wants to protect Bo, keep him from being lured into the ocean to certain death. What will Penny do for love? How will she right the wrongs she’s made?

A beautifully written, haunting fantasy about the power of love, recommended for more mature Young Adult readers.

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Book Review: The World Beneath by Janice Warman

The World Beneath by Janice Warman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposted from my review on Kidliterati 

This historical novel opens up in Cape Town, South Africa, 1976 during apartheid.

Twelve-year-old, Joshua dreams about his big brother, who works in Johannesburg, and he fears for his life. His mother, they call Beauty, not her Xhosa name is the maid in a white household, and she assures Joshua his brother’s fine.

Sent to live with his mother and the wealthy Malherbe’s while he recovers from tuberculosis, Joshua hides his presence. He’s not supposed to be seen. There’s a cupboard under the stairs, where he keeps out of everyone’s way, listening to the sounds of the house.

One day, he finds himself on a “whites only” street with money in his pocket. His mother had told him, “You must never let the police see you. You are not supposed to be here. You must be invisible.”

But when kind-hearted, Joshua comes across Tsumalo, a black man being hunted down by the police the outside world enters to the house of the Malherbe’s, and Joshua hides him in the shack no one visits. Tsumalo explains the cruel injustices taking place in South Africa.

“We are fighting for freedom, Joshua. The whites have the power, and they don’t want to share it with us. They call it apartheid.”

The two become very close, Tsumalo much like the father he never had. Joshua wants to return home to Ciske, where his grandparents live with his younger brother and sister. But he also wants to help, be like his brother, and fight for justice. Only he has to get an education, first, which is denied black people under apartheid.

An explosive incident happens at the Malherbe’s, and Joshua is separated from his mother and Tsumalo. But two years later, Joshua returns to the town he grew up, and to the house his mother worked, knowing he has to make a choice, a choice that could send him to prison without a trial.

Difficult and heartbreaking, readers follow Joshua through what he has to endure; be prepared to become angry when reminded of the ignorance of racism and apartheid. This book is a good starting point for discussions about human rights and democracy, but some passages may not be clear enough for young readers. The author is a reporter now, who lived in South Africa during this time.



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Book Review: Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Ali Fadhil and Jennifer Roy

Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Basra, Iraq, 1991

January 16th.
The bombs start falling.  A repost from my review on Kidlilterati. 

Eleven-year-old Ali and his brother Shirzad, are busy playing Atari when their mother orders them to the safe room. They race each other to the farthest reaches of the schoolhouse, a target where Saddam has placed weapons, where their young sister and brother wait.

The Americans are coming.

This is Ali’s second war, the first lasted eight years, (with Iran) ending when he was nine, his sister only six; she doesn’t remember what war is like.


Saddam Hussein is the president of Iraq, George Bush, the president of the United States. After Saddam orders the invasion of Kuwait, a neighboring country south of Ali’s home in Basra, his family scrambles to lock down and wait for the bombs to pass.

While the bombs fall, Ali plays Atari in his imagination. The bombs hit close enough his teeth vibrate, and he and his siblings sing the Muppet Show theme, drowning them out, and his family lives through their first night of the war.

Saddam’s people are everywhere, even the obnoxious twins Ali and his brother play “football” with, are sons of one of Saddam’s top men, anything he and his brother say or do will be reported. Propaganda rules the airwaves. People disappear.

Meanwhile, everything about America fascinates Ali. He “wishes he’d been born in a place where people are happy and carefree. Where families aren’t hiding, hoping to live through the night, for no other reason than their leader is a madman.”

Ali and his family stick with you, how they survive and deal with the unimaginable, how their regular lives are changed and how they cope as a family even while their father, a dentist for the regime disappears, and Ali’s older brother becomes the boss of him. Based on a true story. There are playful moments, and terrorizing fear, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough, a gripping and thoroughly immersive book.

MG Book Review: Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard

Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost of my review on Kidliterati 


Robinson Hart isn’t a baby robin. She’s the only person to stand up to Alex Carter, the biggest bully in fifth-grade, and he’d better watch his mouth. Grandpa taught her how to seal transmission fluid, but nothing’s going to seal Alex’s mouth or the bloody nose she just gave him. “Robbie” Robinson’s a spitfire and a darn good baseball player. Her best friend Derrick, the opposite of everything she is, runs to her aid on the schoolyard, proclaiming it’s not her fault. “That’s why people need moms, or they end up like her,” Alex Baby Carter cries in defense.

Robinson’s never known her mother or father. All she’s had is Grandpa even if people stare, wondering how they could be related. He’s a black man, and she’s white, he raised her and named her after Jackie Robinson. Now it’s she, who’s taking care of him. Grandpa’s showing signs of Alzheimer’s, and Robbie hates when he’s called into school, on days she’s forgotten to count to ten or read baseball stats in her head to calm down. Whenever I’m bad he forgets more.

Robbie’s wants suspension, then she can help Grandpa in the garage all day, every day for the rest of her life. She’s really good at it, good thing because Grandpa’s forgetting his words and his memory gets tired, and she can’t have anyone wondering if he’s unfit to raise a child. She’s his right-hand and Harold, who’s practicing to be a dad while awaiting an adoption with his partner Paul, is Grandpa’s left-hand in the garage. She knows everything about repairing cars and tapping sugar maple trees.

When her fifth-grade class is given a family tree assignment. Robbie doesn’t know her mother’s name or anything about her family, and her grandfather’s quickly forgetting everything. Robbie needs to find out. Gloria, the guidance counselor, invites a group to discuss their emotions and work on the family tree project, but there’s no way Robbie’s having any of it. Especially since Gloria invited the bully, Alex Carter into the group.

A heartfelt and realistic depiction of living with someone with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s particularly painful reading how a child deals with her grandfather’s struggle. A beautifully written book, with great sensitivity, along with fantastic baseball and mechanic metaphors, we also learn a little about tapping sugar maples in Vermont. And what it looks like when we misjudge others and the lives they live, or the suffering we know nothing about, and then discovering your archenemy might have a heart after all.

Suggested for grade level: 3-7. A moving and powerful reading experience.





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MG Book Review: Stef Soto,Taco Queen

Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A repost from my review on The Kidliterati Blog. 

Tía Perla, the jewel of the family Soto –Not. Smelling of jalapenos and cooking oil that “clings to your hair and crawls under your fingernails.” The Tía Perla was fine when Estefania, “Stef” was younger, it meant corn chips and sodas for all her friends and being playground royalty. But she’s had enough of the truck taking over her life.

She’s in middle school now, and her parent’s drop her off with the taco truck. No one gets picked up by their parents anymore. Stef wants a little independence and not constantly associated with the taco truck and to walk alone to school. She’s been negotiating for months. Mami and Papi wouldn’t even think of leaving her alone, and once again, she’s scooped into another taco truck adventure with her Papi, picking up friends along the way, creating recipes, and bringing people together.

When Papi fires up his grill, the Banda music plays, and the mouth-watering flavors sizzle off the page. Lexi has mixed feeling about the Tía Perla. But she helps her father, while her mother works at the 24-hour grocery, and when he needs her to help him save the family business, Lexi must find her voice and she discovers just how much the taco truck means to her.


A heartwarming book that brings the strength of family, first-generation immigrants, and finding your voice together in this delightful middle grade, while also learning a little Spanish, but be warned: You will become unbearably hungry while reading this book!

YA Review: Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a repost from my review on Kidliterati. 


In a Kingdom where “Gods forbid a woman ever express a sound belief” two sisters, 17-year-old Mia Rose and 15-year-old Angelyne, challenge this belief. Mia wants to be a Huntress, not married off to the prince and continue her mission fighting Gwyrach and their menacing magic.

The girls of the Kaer Killian wear gloves, for the fear anyone one of them could be a murderous Gwyrach, and a threat. “Women who, through their touch could manipulate the flesh, bone, breath, and blood of their victims.”

Mia Rose prepares for her escape; her father, who loved her mother, now dead, has forced her into a loveless marriage. Only “She has work to do and a sister to save.”
Her sister’s fighting a mysterious illness, since staying in the ancient citadel carved from a mountain of ice, her lady in waiting during the month-long engagement.

A demon, half-god, half-human, killed her mother and destroyed their lives. It’s Mia’s mission to find that Gwyrach once they escape. But her sister, Angelyne won’t go, and Mia can’t leave her behind. She insists the life Mia hates and wants to escape isn’t so bad.

Mia’s marriage to the prince continues as planned. Even after overhearing him call her dangerous. During the wedding dinner, Mia vows to strike fear in every living Gwyrach, once she’s princess.

Her father secretly hands Mia her mother’s journal. Her mother wanted Mia to have it when she was ready. She discovers her mother’s secrets as the blank pages reveal what she needs to know in due time. Changing all her preconceived beliefs.

Five hundred pairs of eyes await the union, marking the alliance of two great houses. The prince falls into Mia’s arms, wounded by an arrow, and they make their escape. When Mia tries to save his life, her entire world is thrown into chaos, and the adventure is just getting started.

A gorgeously written fantasy with nail-biting suspense, and twists that’ll leave your mouth gaping. A familiar world, a little too familiar, where powerful women and girls are seen as dangerous, feared, and kept bottled up, or on display. Many of the truths are painfully similar to the struggles of our time. Written with a poignant message about feminism and love.

Sometimes love is the stronger choice.


*Wish I could format the italics properly.

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MG Book Review: The Vanderbeekers of 141 Street

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost from my review on the Kidliterati Blog


When the Vanderbeeker children of 141 Street in Harlem discover their landlord isn’t renewing the lease, they strike out with inventive ways to convince him otherwise. Only he isn’t going to be easy to convince, he never leaves his third-floor apartment, and he’s grouchy and scary.


It’s Christmastime in the city. Mr. Vanderbeeker calls a meeting and explains to his five biracial children, along with their dog, a cat, and house rabbit that they have to leave the neighborhood they’ve grown up in. The friendly neighborhood where they know every clerk and shop owner. It’s the worst time to be homeless.

Distraught beyond comprehension, one by one, each of the five Vanderbeeker children, Oliver, the twins Jessie and Isa, and Laney and Hyacinth come up with clever ideas that are sure to melt the landlord, Mr. Beiderman’s heart. Only nothing works, even when the entire neighborhood signs a petition to help save their home.

It’s an all-out love assault. But will anything stop the Beiderman?

Such a delightful and heartwarming story that reminded me of the feeling I had reading books as a child. A classic. Each of the Vanderbeeker’s children will find their way into your heart with their charms and creativity. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. (Sept. 25, 2018)




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YA Book Review: The Gallery of Unfinished Girls

The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

A repost from my review on The Kidliterati 

A piano appears on the lawn one week after seventeen-year-old Mercedes Moreno’s mother has left for Puerto Rico to watch over her abuela, lying in a coma. Mercedes and her fourteen-year-old sister, Angela, wait for their mother’s return in Sarasota and try to the best of it. But it’s not easy. Her sister becomes better and better on the piano they keep in the living room, growing as a musician, while Mercedes is unsure of what to paint, or why or how she’ll create anything of artist merit since her award-winning piece last year.

That she’s fallen in love with her best friend Victoria and keeping it a secret might have something to do with her lack of inspiration. A mysterious new tenant moves in with the neighbor they share a porch with. Her name is Lilia Solis. She’s also Latina, and a painter, and seems to live in an entirely different world. Lilia works to move Mercedes out of limbo, toward her next work of art, asking questions and sharing her own work.

Mercedes wishes she could return to the feeling of being on the brink of creation, “a little like falling in love.” When Lilia introduces Mercedes to the Red Mangrove Estate, a beachfront artist’s community where the artists can “be their best selves”, she spends more and more time there, meeting other artists, in a whirlwind of dreamy creation, where Tricia’s deepest secrets spill forth, while her sister spends time upstairs playing piano like a virtuoso. They both want to stay and live in endless creation.

An absorbing, and beautifully written in a way you’re sure you’ve entered another dimension, blurring the lines of reality in this delightful magical realism, that had me racing through, so I could get to painting and playing music too! I’m pretty sure I burst into magical tears in the last chapter. This book was that inspiring. The relationship between Victoria and Mercedes is warm and tender and very loving. Positive bisexual representation.



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YA Book Review: The Hush

The Hush by Skye Melki-Wegner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost from my review on the Kidliterati Blog.

“There were creatures in the Hush, creatures of twisted magic, formed from the remnants of real-world sorcery. The Hush was a dumping ground for the leftovers. The residual, dregs of Music and broken tunes …”

A musician traveling with his fiddle, and searching for his father, enters the town of Hamlin. Pegasi patrol the skies. He hopes the locals will like his music enough, he’ll be able to eat that night, and he sets up in the local saloon. Never expecting what would happen when he plays the fiddle, that his music would touch the Song, and he’d be arrested. He didn’t mean to, but he was a natural, raised in the slums by his father. Only Songshapers were supposed to sense the tune of things in a physical way.

Chester is doomed, sentenced to death. The resident Songshaper explains his sentence, while locked behind bars, preparing to be hung. Chester feels music in the stone walls, in the slivers of wood, but there’s no way out. He doesn’t understand how his music connected to Music so quickly. It’s a crime for the untrained in the Song to use it.

Chester stands ready with the executioner, confused about how he got to this point, and the blade comes down, but he’s suddenly someplace else, and not in front of a horde of townspeople ready to watch him die. It’s dark, and he’s with the older teen who requested that difficult song, back at the saloon, the song that got him arrested, and now he’s helping Chester escape. They travel through the Hush, and it’s rife with Echos, and other twisted sorts of magic. Chester meets the others teens in the Nightfall Gang. The legendary gang, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, he hopes they can help find his father, but they need Chester, and the trials begin.


An absorbing, and a beautifully imaginative world, a musical fantasy like none I’ve read before. The characters deal with tough knocks and adventure at every turn, inventing and utilizing fascinating magic devices and inventions.

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Book Review: The Crystal Ribbon

The Crystal Ribbon by Celeste Lim
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reposting from my review on The Kidliterati. 


During the Northern Song dynasty in Taiyuan province of Medieval China lived a girl named Li Jing.

Spirit guardians protect the villages, such as the Great Golden Huli Jing, the five-tailed fox jing that saved hers years ago, and Jing shares a name with. Teased constantly, she’s reminded to be proud of her name because it’s a part of her. The village shamaness says her name ties her to their village jing, like a crystal ribbon, that it will protect and help Li Jing “find the home of her spirit.”

Since Li Jing’s mother died in childbirth, she watches over her younger brothers. Her aunt Mei and Grandmamma live with them, and her Baba. With hardly enough to feed themselves, they offer the tutelary spirits their best crops. And in order to survive, Jing’s family sells her to a family in Xiawan, where she becomes a tongyang-xi — wife, and nursemaid to a three-year-old. Jing’s life goes from hard to worse and she’s sold once again.

Facing unimaginable adversity, Jing’s only option is to run away, and she wants to go home. A magical spider, a nightingale, and a traveling stranger help her find a way.
A richly depicted historical fantasy, emotionally charged, filled with magic and hope, and some of the loveliest metaphors. Readers will be inspired by Li Jing’s resilience and strength.

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YA Book Review: Now is Everything

Now Is Everything by Amy Giles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A repost from my review on The Kidliterati. 
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All seventeen-year-old Hadley wants is to protect her sister from the monster. The monster her mother won’t go against. The brut that pushes her at the gym, and laughs at any pain she suffers, and like a drill sergeant, has her up at the crack of dawn to run every day despite her injuries. The monster is her father.

Hadley can take it. She can take just about anything he dishes out. So long as he stays away from Lila, her 10-year-old, spirited and carefree sister, who’s innocent of his torments, for the most part. Hadley wants to keep it that way and plans to enroll at a local college, instead of Cornell, her father’s alma mater. The college he’s forcing her to attend.

Hadley doesn’t confide in anyone at school, she doesn’t tell her friends what’s happening at home. Hadley suffers alone.
Until she meets Charlie.

All the girls swoon over Charlie, kind, humble, and contentious. Hadley can’t understand why he likes her. They fall hard for each other. But her father’s on to him, becoming suspicious and even more controlling of Hadley until suddenly he’s not. The monster has found Hadley’s weakness and sets his sights. Then the next tragedy strikes; a tragedy that changes everything.

Told in two timelines: then and now. Beautifully written, its subject difficult to read at times. There were many triggers for me, personally. Hadley’s emotional journey of being trapped in an abusive family was written with sensitivity and understanding—and suspense! It was also difficult to put down.

2017 Debut Author.

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MG Book Review: Kat Greene Comes Clean by Melissa Roske

Kat Greene Comes Clean by Melissa Roske
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A repost from my Kidliterati review.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eleven-year-old, Kat Greene is growing more and more frustrated with her mother’s constant need to clean. When she tries to talk to her about school or anything else she becomes distracted by germs. Kat isn’t sure she should tell her father what’s happening, how her mother washes her hands until they’re scaly and red as lobsters. He has another wife now, and three-year-old son to take care of, Harry, whom she babysits on occasion with her best friend, Halle. If he finds out, he’ll make Kat move in with them, and she can’t leave her mother alone.

Kat’s mother feels horrible. It’s something she can’t control. Maybe if she wins a spot on the game show, Clean Sweep, she can come clean about her cleaning obsession, and do something useful with it. Kat sure is rooting for her. It’s what they both hope.

While this is happening, Kat’s learns she’s the Boy with the Purple Socks, in the class’s dramatic presentation of Harriet the Spy, The Harriet Project. Not only does she think her character is boring, she has to pair off with Sam, who won’t leave her alone. He wants her to make the Boy with the Purple Socks do something “memorable”. Kat loves Harriet the Spy and relates to Harriet in many ways, but she can’t bring anyone home while her mother’s behavior “is too weird for random guests”.

It’s hard for her to focus on The Harriet Project, or much else while worrying about her mother if she’ll throw out her favorite things, or ruin them with bleach because they’re considered dirty. Olympia, the school psychologist, offers help, and after an online search, Kat learns about the anxiety disorder, OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It scares Kat that her mother has this condition, or that she could get it too!

Written with a lot of heart and humor, Kat Greene Comes Clean, is a vibrant MG voice for readers 9-12.






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MG Book Review: The Countdown Conspiracy by Katie Slivensky

The Countdown Conspiracy by Katie Slivensky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A re-post from my review on The Kidliterati blog.
 I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a ride! This book is Star Trek for Middle-Grade readers.

Only the best of the best are chosen, and thirteen-year-old, engineer, Miranda Regent, from the USA, is preparing for a flight to Mars. Her adorable mechbot, outfitted with thrusters, is her companion. She’s one of six kids from around the world, training for this mission aboard the Ambassador.

But the bombs! The kids barely escape. A war is about to break out on Earth. Miranda receives threating messages. Someone wants the space agency destroyed. Has Miranda been singled out as the target? And it’s only training day.
What if they never have the chance to blast off, after a life’s worth of training because the space agency is in ruins?

Suspects, mystery, and intrigue; no one can figure out who’s trying to sabotage the space program. Is it the Russians? A great cast of international kid characters, dealing with living and working in close proximity. There are rivals and jealousy, high stakes, and adventure!

The details about flight create an outstanding realness, and it’s science, due to the author being a science educator. She knocked this book out of the park – or I should say, into outer space. Energizing and inspiring and perfect for STEM readers.

MG Book Review: The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan

The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan by Patricia Bailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars  A reblog from my review on The Kidliterati 

 I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“I killed my mother. Twice, if I am to be completely honest—though she only died the one time.”

Entering Kit’s word we are sent back to 1905 Goldfield, Nevada during the gold rush, and meet Kit Donovan, thirteen-years-old, blaming and publically shaming herself for her mother’s death from pneumonia.

It’s dusty and dirty, and she lives in a tent with her father. Her school is in a tent. Classmates tease her incessantly and throw stones! Her teacher ostracizes and humiliates her. It’s the hard knock life for sure.

Kit’s father works in the local gold mine, and one day she comes home and finds the neighbor, Wild Woman, Clara, pulling wood splinters and bandaging her father’s arm and talking about Mr. Granger, the corrupt owner of the mine Goliath, who wants to blow the wells to kingdom come. Regardless of who is harmed or killed.

Kit convinces her father to speak out about the dangers of the gold mine, and when he doesn’t she takes the truth to the local newspaper. The whole town explodes with the news. Her father’s gunned down on Main Street right in front of her. Granger holds the smoking pistol, shouting, “It was self-defense.” Her father now labeled “agitator” and dead.

She finds solace at the horse stables with a borrowed copy The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The only book she has, other than the Bible, to keep her from “becoming as dull and stupid as this savage place” A promise she made her mother. She meets Arnie in the stables, a Shoshone boy, reading the copy of Huck Finn, and he quickly becomes an ally.

With her keen curiosity and determination, advanced spelling skills, (even if she suppresses her intelligence so she’s not teased at school) she lands a job at the local Times, after a few adjustments to the part about being a girl, she goes undercover in the mines to find out first hand and prove her father’s innocence. She learns that her father knew even more about the dangers of the mines.


This book was such a pleasure to read. The setting and atmosphere were well developed and the characters grip your heart. You’re right with Kit, as she heroically and tragically sets off, each adventure more tragic than the next.

Published on April 25th, 2017 by Albert Whitman